RICK STITCH – who already served a tour of duty in ADLER’S APPETITE – currently fronts not one, but two up-and-coming Los Angeles bands, namely LADYJACK and HOTEL DIABLO. Furthermore, he’s beginning to establish himself as a prominent solo artist – not bad for a boy from London, Ontario who made the trek west to Hollywood, California. Juggling three projects may seem insurmountable to the majority of musicians, but not Rick, who is currently in Toronto “working on some of my own stuff for a bit, while the Hotel Diablo record is being mixed; just keeping busy.” Modesty aside, Rick reveals “I’ve got a lot of friends here I haven’t seen in a while, so I’m enjoying time with them. And there’s a lot of musicians in various projects; it’s always cool to see what happens. There’s no pressure or real sort of game plan, we’re just having fun with different kinds of music – some hard stuff, some soft stuff, some electronic stuff.”
Stitch released his new solo single ‘I’m A Fool (For You)’ online April 1st at RickStitch.com and on iTunes. “It’s got some piano in it, some acoustic, some strings, and it’s got some big guitar solos in it. Basically, if you’re expecting something super heavy, this isn’t it! I just figured April Fools was the 1st and the song is about being a fool, so why not? But I’ve been working on songs like this, more singer/songwriter stuff for a long time. There’s never been an official date to release it all and by doing that, this stuff’s been held back, so I’m just putting it out there. My plan is every month to put out a song, and in the meantime just keep writing and writing.”
Standing alongside Stitch in Hotel Diablo is guitarist Alex Grossi, bassist Mike Duda and drummer Mike Dupke. Readily aware of the dangers of funneling too much music down a narrow channel all at once, Rick acquiesces, “you try to pick when to put stuff out; it’s just finding little pockets. There’s no competition in the sense of, here comes my single. The Diablo stuff is coming out… it’s fun putting stuff out on your own. With the Diablo record, we’re still working on a home for that, talking with a few different labels. But for my own stuff, I’m just putting it out there myself. I’m in talks with a couple smaller indie labels – hopefully people like it. There’ll be a little something for everyone. My style of writing is a bit different than Diablo, Diablo’s more heavy.”
Amicably jumping ship to Ladyjack – rounded out by guitarist Robo, bassist Justin Smolian, and drummer Paul Houton – Rick reveals, “Ladyjack is still together and still recording; it just seems like every project is in the recording state and the focus is on that, which is great. If you get in the mode of writing and it’s all coming out; don’t mess with it. That’s kind of why I’m here (in Toronto), just taking advantage of that.”
On the surface, apart from their differing lineups, Ladyjack and Hotel Diablo sound quite similar; Rick is quick to school the uninitiated on what sets his two bands apart. “With Ladyjack we can get away with doing something that might be a little more… with Diablo there’s a dark element, an underlying tone. That’s something every member – without even talking about it – when we started writing music was just kind of there. I don’t know if that’s the common thread of individuals in the band, certain experiences we’ve had. With Ladyjack, we can add some drum loops or write something that might be a little more ‘alternative.’ With Diablo, I don’t want to make comparisons, but our influences are ALICE IN CHAINS, old GUNS N’ ROSES, even some of the newer bands like SHINEDOWN; that’s more of the Diablo vibe. Especially with the big guitars and working with GILBY (CLARKE, formerly of GN’R), the difference to me is the sound that just kind of happened. With Ladyjack it’s something we were working on. Also with Ladyjack I did most of the songwriting. I do a great deal with Diablo too, but I don’t mess around with people’s parts. I’ll focus more on the vocals; it’s two different things, two different bands. For me it’s a bonus. With Ladyjack there’s certain things I wanted to sing about, but never did, because the people that are listening to the band, it would really bum them out. So with Diablo, it’s perfect for the darker side of myself that I’ve kind of kept away from the other bands. Finally it’s an outlet where I can do it, and the music it’s going along with is great. It’s like therapy; I’m excited. At first I thought it would put people it a sad place, but we go and play these killer rock shows and everyone’s enjoying it, yet I’m singing about not the happiest things… there’s a lot of people out there that can relate to it. Not every song is ‘sorrow’, but there’s certain messages in there that seem to work well with the music.”
At the beginning of our interview, Rick mentioned electronic music – a style completely foreign to both Ladyjack and Hotel Diablo. Towards the end of March, Stitch surprisingly Tweeted Toronto’s own electronic house guru and Juno nominee DEADMAU5, proposing a collaboration between his rock vocals and the masked man’s beats. “For sure, I don’t really talk about it much in interviews, but I love electronic stuff; that’s kind of how I started – doing house beats, club beats, hip hop beats. I was working for different companies doing that kind of music – and then doing my own stuff. I’ve always been a fan of ROB ZOMBIE and MARILYN MANSON. The singing thing, I just kind of fell into, and then I loved it because that’s one thing I never got out of just doing electronic stuff. There’s certain emotions I feel when I’m singing, and I don’t feel that from playing a keyboard or hitting a drum machine. That’s why I think after all this time I just kept at it. But at the same time, I’ve always yearned to work on different stuff, but there was always a bigger project that required more of my attention. There’s tons of different DJs, just doing something new, keeping it fresh, because when you go back to the other project you’re in, you’re going to have a little something more to bring to it.”
With all due respect, Rick is too young to be experiencing the Tommy Lee mid-life crisis. After the laughter subsides, Stitch offered the following, “I got a feeling he was doing that the whole time as well. It’s the same thing. When he goes to MÖTLEY CRÜE it’s cool, but it’s not just the one love. I’m sure when he goes out he has a great time cause it’s a different scene, a different energy. There’s also that youthfulness that comes with it; and everyone benefits from that.”
Getting back to Hotel Diablo, their debut full-length, The Return To Psycho California, comes out in May. Given the fact that the Psycho California EP was released a mere four months ago in January, it seems as though the band barely left their titular destination; if it was ten years later ‘The Return’ would be more appropriate. According to Rick, “there were these songs that… originally we wanted to put out the full-length record, but part of that batch of tunes wasn’t finished or wasn’t right. So it’s kind of like this is the second half of the first record – which was the EP. For us, it would have been weird to call it something else, because these songs definitely belong with those first six we put out.”
The Psycho California EP was only released digitally; will The Return be available on actual CD? “Yeah, it’ll be digital as well, but it’ll definitely be available, depending on which distributors are involved with it. You’ll be able to pick up a physical copy of it through our website, TheHotelDiablo.com.” Will The Return To Psycho California be all-new music, or a combination of the previously released EP and several new songs? “It’ll be the EP plus all the new tracks. But we’ve done a few different things to the other songs like acoustic versions; it’s pretty exciting, pretty cool to finally get it happening.”
The man who is equally capable of belting out powerhouse vocals, and softly serenading tender passages, has an affinity for reworking his electric songs into acoustic versions, Hotel Diablo’s Psycho California contained amplified and unplugged versions of ‘What You Do To Me’, as did the Ladyjack EP with two different takes on ‘No Good Reasons’. Rick reveals, “there are certain songs written acoustically, and not just for me but the rest of the band, you get attached to that style and sound. But when you put it into the live scenario, it becomes a different song with a different feel. So it’s always kind of cool to go back to that. Stripping things down gives people an opportunity to really focus on the lyrics, and it’s a different vibe. For us, it’s a fun thing too. We’ll do it again I’m sure.”
Originally posted on: bravewords.com
Posted on Wednesday, April 11, 2012 at 11:19:08
By Aaron Small