Hot on the heels of reviewing The Rods’ rather awesome latest album, Wild Dogs Unleashed, MetalTalk’s Mark Rotherham spoke with the band’s singer, guitarist and founding member, David ‘Rock’ Feinstein. Rock is a guy who has been around the block, and then some, and here’s what he had to say about The Rods, their new album, his time in Elf, and what it means to him to be a musician.
Wild Dogs Unchained is Classic Metal roaring back and one hundred per cent thoroughly enjoyable Heavy Metal. For Rock Feinstein, here he approached the songwriting differently. “There’s some songs that you wouldn’t hear on earlier The Rods albums,” David told MetalTalk. “They’re a little bit different. I wanted the lyrics to be more meaningful and reflect what’s going on in the world today.
“Songs like World On Fire, Tears For The Innocent are more topical. In the past, back in the ’80s, it was more about writing songs for the times, which were basically about sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll.
“But here and now, I felt that I wanted to express myself a little bit differently and write songs about what’s happening in the world. I don’t know how the fans will react to hearing these different types of songs. Some of them are really different to the traditional Rods songs, but they do make a point, and they express what my feelings are as a songwriter.”
David ‘Rock’ Feinstein is both the singer and the guitarist for The Rods, and you, but that was not always the plan. “When I started out, I was really young,” he says. “My cousin, Ronnie James Dio, played trumpet when he was a kid. And when I turned seven, I started on trumpet because I wanted to be like him. He was five years older than me, so I always looked up to him.
“When he formed his band, Ronnie Dio And The Prophets, I became a teenager, and I wanted to form a band. All the other kids my age wanted to be in bands as well. They all looked up at Ronnie’s band as being the best band around. A friend of mine played guitar, and yeah, we were gonna form a band.
“I said, ‘I play trumpet, but that’s not gonna work too good in a rock band.’ So I took up playing the drums. I became a drummer in this band. After a while, I sat in with Ronnie’s band on drums, so he knew I was a drummer. At the same time, the guitarist in my band would show me how to play a few chords.
“Then, one night, Ronnie was playing at a local bar, and he came up to me and asked me if I could play guitar as well as the drums. I said, ‘Yeah, I can play guitar, why?’ He said that his rhythm guitar player was leaving the band, and did I want to join Ronnie James Dio’s band as rhythm guitar player? Of course, I said yes.
“It was great for me. I loved it, and the thing is, at that time I only knew three chords on the guitar. That’s it, three chords. So, Dick, the guitar player at the time, stayed on for a couple of months and taught me. After a while, I could play half a set, a whole set, two sets, three sets, right up to four sets of cover songs.
“And that was that. I was a rhythm guitar player for Ronnie Dio And The Prophets. So at that stage, I was really looking forward to playing the guitar and coming off the drums. Playing the guitar, I felt I could be a little bit more creative, and I really enjoyed that. Over time, I played in Ronnie’s band, The Elves, and then Elf.
“So then, when it came to forming The Rods, straight away, I was the guitar player. My inspirations came from the people I listened to, and I was pretty much self-taught. I never took a formal lesson or anything, but Jeff Beck, Richie Blackmore, Jimi Hendrix were the players at the time, and they were the ones that I looked at and really revered as inspirations for me and my style.
“So when The Rods were formed, I started writing songs. I went to see this local band playing. Carl [Canedy] was the drummer, and he was such a good drummer that straight away I asked him if he wanted to start a band with me. He said, ‘Yeah,’ and it started like that.
“So no, I didn’t always want to be a guitar player, but once I played guitar in a band, that was what I knew I wanted to do. It also opened up the door for me to write songs as I learned the music, which I probably still could have done on drums. But learning the guitar was special to me.
“As far as being a singer, I never wanted to be a singer. But in Ronnie’s band, I sang vocal backup. Mind you, everybody sang vocal backup in Ronnie’s band. But as far as being a lead singer, I don’t really consider myself a real singer. Sure, I can put the thing across, and I guess it works.
“Being a three-piece Metal band, we’ve been categorised as the American Motörhead type of thing. But it was also a practical thing. When we formed The Rods, there simply weren’t any singers around, so we got stuck where Carl sang a few songs, I sang some songs, and the bass player sang some songs.
“I was singing most of the songs, and I just became the lead singer. So after a few years and a few albums, it was like, okay, that’s it, we’re established as a trio, similar to Motörhead and bands like that. But did I always want to be a singer? No, I really didn’t, but you know what, it really does help me with writing songs, and that always reminds me a lot of Ronnie.
“With Ronnie, writing a song was limitless, and his capabilities were so amazing that he could sing anything. But for me, when it came to writing for a band for The Rods, with me singing it, I had to write songs that were basic rock songs that I could put across vocally, but which were also songs that we could play live as a trio.”
The first track on The Rods’ new album, Wild Dogs Unleashed, is called Eyes Of A Dreamer. For rockers of a certain age, and yes, that includes me, this opening track will be red meat to satisfy your most diabolical appetites. As I was listening to it, it seemed to me very much like a tribute to Ronnie.
“I didn’t write it intentionally as a tribute,” David says. “A year or two after Ronnie passed away, I did a solo album that was a tribute to him, and that was that.
“We have to go back in time, now. In the early ’80s, when The Rods were first together, we wrote about things for the times, like sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll, and all that kind of thing. But now, in the here and now, after Ronnie passed, I really felt that he was such a great lyricist, he had such a brilliant mind, that just like he did, I wanted to write songs that really meant something.
“I wanted to express those feelings, rather than just songs about what time does the party start. So, yeah, that song, and World An Fire, and Tears For The Innocent, they’re all three different songs. They really do show my feelings for the times.
“I really don’t know how the fans are gonna take them, because they’re so different to a traditional Rods song, but I think that for every Rods fan that doesn’t accept them, there might be a hundred other ones that will accept it.
“I think for an artist, it’s like if you do a painting, and if you think the painting is really great and really good, it doesn’t really matter what everybody else thinks about it. It’s what the artist thinks, and I’m really proud of those songs.
“I think they’re some of the best songs I’ve ever written. I’ve taken a different approach to the lyrics and expressing feelings. I really hope those songs will relate to a lot of people, and I really think that’s what Ronnie did in all his music.
“He was an absolute genius when it came to being a lyricist in his songs.”
Does the inspiration come looking?
With the different lyrical content on Wild Dogs Unleashed, does the inspiration come looking for David ‘Rock’ Feinstein, or does he write to a chosen theme? “I think it has to come from being inspired,” he says. “I’m constantly aware of things that are being said, maybe in a movie or in a book, or in a conversation that we’re having or whatever. Once I get something that I think would be great for a song, I’ll put it on my phone, boom, boom, boom, I’ve documented it.
“Or if I’m sitting down, just fooling around with the guitar, and all of a sudden, I play a riff and think, hey, that’s a pretty good riff, again, I’ll put it on my phone.
“Then I go back and I listen to what’s there, and then all these ideas and titles are just there. And some of the songs on this album, like Tears For The Innocent, World On Fire, and yes, Eyes Of A Dreamer, are things in today’s world, and I got inspired by that.
“When I watch TV and I see people being bombed and losing everything that they’ve had in their whole life, it’s awful. But at the same time, it’s inspiring for me to want to express my feelings, to say how I feel about that. When the inspiration comes from something like that, it’s so much more than writing about what time does the party start. You have to be inspired by something to really make it worthwhile.”
The Rods – A Twenty-Two-Year Hiatus
The Rods split up for a time, and there was a twenty-two-year hiatus before they got back together again. “The hiatus happened because we got fed up with the business part of the music business,” Feinstein says. “It’s important to mention those two words, music and business. I’m sure you’ve heard stories about how musicians get taken advantage of by the business side of it, and we just got tired of all that.
“Back then, you were at the mercy of record companies, and if you didn’t have a record deal, your music wasn’t heard. It’s not like today at all, where you can record your music and put it on the internet, and people can hear your music.
“In the ’80s, even if you got a record deal, it was mostly all one-sided in the record label’s favour, and we just got tired of it all. We said to each other, we’re all still friends, but we just went on to do other things.
“For myself, I bought a restaurant. There were a few years where I really didn’t do much of anything, and I just wanted to clear my head and get away from music for a while.
“But then I started writing songs again, and I wanted to hear them, and that’s when I started The Rods. Like I said, I went to see Carl, and we formed that band, just to go out, play some clubs, and make fifty dollars a night. It was really just to express ourselves, and be musicians, because I have to tell you, once it’s in you, being a musician, it’s there for good.
“That’s the thing. We never formed a band to think that we were gonna be rock stars, or that we were gonna make a lot of money, make records, travel the world. It wasn’t intended to be that. It just happened.
“We were playing a bar, and this guy came up to us, wanted to be our manager, so he became our manager. He got us a record deal, we made a record, and the next thing I know, we’re in the UK on tour with Iron Maiden. And that’s just the way it happened.”
For David ‘Rock’ Feinstein, music is in his blood. As we go through life, many are actually looking forward to retiring, but for a lot of musicians, it seems like there’s no retirement. It is something they continue doing and doing and doing. What is it that makes being a musician different?
“That’s hard to say,” David says. “It’s like when we took that hiatus. For a while, I just needed to get away from music. I was driving a truck, and I took the radio right out of my truck, because I didn’t wanna hear music for a while.
“But, you know, and maybe it’s not true with everyone, but I grew up with music, from a very young age, and it’s something that stayed with me. And as long as you can physically and mentally control that, I think it does stay with you.
“There are a lot of people out there, a lot of artists that are getting up in age, including me, but they’re still out there performing. It’s not that you have to go on the road like you did when you were younger, for weeks and weeks at a time. But to go and do shows, and to play live, even if for a week, or three, four days, I can’t speak for every musician, but I think there’s something in there that’s always there.
“Even if you’re not a writer of songs, even if you’re a player, it doesn’t just disappear. I mean, maybe it does for some people. Maybe they’ve taken a burn and they don’t wanna have anything to do with it anymore.
“But for me, it doesn’t go away. It stays with you, all the time.”
And if, for whatever reason, David could not be a musician, and if he wanted to achieve something else in life, what would be his alternative goal?
“Man, I would just try to enjoy every day the best that I could,” he smiles. “I can’t put it more simple than that.”
The Rods released Wild Dogs Unchained last Friday via Massacre Records. The album is available as limited Vinyl LP, CD Digipak, and Digital. For more details, visit save-it.cc/massacre/wild-dogs-unchained.
