Jeff Scott Soto is no stranger to MisplacedStraws, he is certainly a favorite on this site and has just released a new record called Apex with his all-star band W.E.T. In addition to Jeff, the band features Erik Martensson of Eclipse and Robert Sall of Work of Art. Apex could be the best work in the incredible catalogue of this band and Jeff recently sat down to talk about it.
Please press the PLAY icon for the MisplacedStraws Jeff Scott Soto Interview –
On the logistics of putting together a record with members in different countries – Timing is mostly the difficult side. The creative side is not the concern. Especially because of with W.E.T., we have years in between albums. We have time to actually write songs, sit on songs, and not that we necessarily are writing every day or within the three or four years it takes in between records. We do focus on the writing. But it does allow us the opportunity to garner other influences and other things that we normally haven’t done with past W.E.T. songs and say, if it wasn’t for that, we wouldn’t have this song. If it wasn’t for this, we wouldn’t have that song. So that allows us to even, I guess, progress creatively as opposed to this being our one and only band. When the process is there, then we pull our resources and influences together. This is a constant building of our own arsenal of influences that we are now able to put into W.E.T. when it’s time to actually do it.
On his approach to writing W.E.T. songs – It’s kind of a combination of both. I’ve never been a solid writer or a contributor of the W.E.T. material. I’ve dabbled here and there when Erik has a song and maybe his collaborator’s either too busy or not giving him the right feel lyrically. He will send me something with melodies and kind of mock lyrics as he’s singing them and usually, I get stuck with his vowel sounds and I’ll emulate what he’s doing. There was a song on the third album called “Heart Is On The Line”. He sent me the original version of him kind of singing the “La las”, but he doesn’t just go, “la la la la la” to give me the idea. He always does mock lyrics. I remember the, the title of that was “Rock Me, Caroline”. I’m like, “What, how am I gonna write a song called “Rock Me Caroline”?” And it’s more of a ballad type of thing, but that was just his throwaway lyric. But it was so stuck in my head. I couldn’t write. Vowel sounds are so important when you’re listening to melodies that they stick with you.
So, “Rock Me, Caroline turned into “Heart Is On The Line”. You can almost sing them phonetically the same way, but obviously “heart is on the line” had a little more something you can actually write about as “Rock Me, Caroline”, where’s this gonna go? I do get the majority of the stuff already pre-written from Erik. He’s pretty much the overseer, he looks from the very beginning to the very end. He’s very important from the sound to the, the production and the sound to the quality of the songs, to the direction of the songs, just everything. He’s really the overseer. He’s the puppet master, so to speak, of W.E.T.
On the evolution of W.E.T. as a band – The hardest part about continuing or doing, especially springboarding from something that is successful or well accepted, like the first album. The first Talisman album to this day, everybody will always say the first one was the best. You could say that about so many bands. There are a lot of people that say the very first Van Halen album was the quintessential Ultimate Van Halen album. I always try, we as artists always try to not only bring you in for the ride, but to stay with us on the ride and so many fall off or drop off because they say, “Ah, it just doesn’t have the same magic as the first album”. That’s not necessarily our fault because if the first album was so received and well received as it was, then we struck gold. We’re drilling into the ground and oil started spewing and to actually continue that oil spew, you either have to keep repeating yourself and just keep making the same record over and over, which you get criticized for, or you have to expand and show different sides and creativity and other influences, which you also get criticized for.
As the artist it’s really difficult to fine that fine line of give them what they’re expecting but also show them growth and show them that we’re not just repeating the same thing over and over. Or for instance, there are some songs that sound like Talisman could have done them or JSS could have done them as a JSS song. That is not by design, that’s just naturally by accident because it’s who we are. It’s what we inject to our own music. But on the other hand, we always have to think we have an audience for a reason. Now we have to try and keep that audience happy, but we also have to show them that we are not just puppets, that we’re not just doing what we’re expected, that we actually are doing something that we enjoy doing. You can hear it and feel it. You don’t always get that. To this day, I have a few people that say, “The album’s all right, but you’ll never beat the first one”, because we’re not trying to.
On the funk sound of “Pay Dirt” – As I just said, we can’t keep just repeating ourselves. Of course, you’re gonna have some things that are reminiscent of earlier stuff here and there. That’s unavoidable. But on the other hand, he might have a song like “Pay Dirt” and say, “Who would this fit better?” Would it be an Eclipse song, a Nordic Union song, a W.E.T. song?
On if it’s tough to blend his voice with Erik’s when they record remotely – Not at this point. Maybe on the second album when I came up with the idea of Erik should do, because it, as I said, he sends me all of this stuff already kind of mapped out. He will send lyrics that were co-written by the guy that helps him write his stuff with Eclipse all the time or with other writers. Then he will demo, and he’ll send it to me. So, from that, I now have to put my version of what he’s sending me. I don’t sound like I’m trying to be Erik Martinsson or trying to sound like Erik or even using his nuance nuances. I want to put my own stamp and make it sound the way as if I actually co-wrote it and created it the same way.
Somebody like Freddie Mercury, for instance, would sing a Brian May penned song or a Roger Taylor penned song or John Deacon song. At the end, it sounds like Freddie co-wrote that song because of his input. I try to do the same thing with W.E.T. That being said, it gives us the me a chance to put my own stamp on somebody else’s thought, somebody else’s lyrics, somebody else’s mindset that I wouldn’t necessarily think of or put on that song myself.
On performing with Erik on the Monsters of Rock Cruise – We did a stripped-down version of “This House is on Fire”. It was thrown together last minute. When I play the boat and those guys are on, I always invite them. It’s a given that I’m gonna get them on stage with me. But that’s not necessarily the case when Eclipse plays. I never expect them to invite me. I never expect, “Hey, I’m here. Why aren’t we doing something together?” I think they got pressured by people on the boat. They got pushed by a few too many people saying, “Oh, you can do something Jeff. You can do something with Jeff”. I wasn’t doing Soto this year. It was only me and (Jason) Bieler, there was no bringing them on stage with us like I normally do. It was a last-minute decision. I ran into Erik at lunch the day of that show and he goes, “Hey, what do you think about doing a little bit of “House on Fire”?” “I’m ready. Let’s do it. I still remember it well because I just shot the video, and I had to do multiple takes over and over”.
On social media comments made by the label about the band – It’s like anything, you have your days, you have your moments, and that was an unnecessary jab. I wasn’t throwing anybody under the bus. But the bottom line was it was too expensive to get me to Sweden to get me with the guys, way more expensive to get them all here. So we had to do things remotely. All I was doing is saying, I was mainly just pointing out the fact that because we have today’s technology, we’re still able to do that kind of stuff, especially during the pandemic. We were still able to create and come up with content. We would’ve loved for me to be there, but financially it’s just not there. Any label or any particular party responsible for financing something is gonna attack me for trying to say that we were able to piece it together based on budgets. Of course, it means they’re not willing or wanting to dump multitudes of thousands of dollars for a video that’s a promotional tool.
In the end, it comes outta our pockets anyways. They didn’t want to invest. It would’ve cost a pretty penny to just to get me there. Hotels and all that stuff. There was the timing. I have shows, I have things that I have to a window of opportunity I can do it. When that opportunity came up, it was just far too expensive. So, we had to choose the way we did it. I was just pointing that out, per se. I wasn’t attacking the label for being cheap. I wasn’t saying, “You guys weren’t working with us”, and we were all working together trying to find a window that made sense, and it just didn’t work out this time. And that’s all that was.
On the next JSS record – They reached out to me at the end of ’22 saying it’s time to start thinking about and discussing the next JSS album. Haven’t heard a word about it since. I’m so busy already. We’ve had this discussion so many times about me spreading myself too thin. I’m here, there and everywhere and your start getting to the point like, “Oh, another album from Jeff’s coming out”, three months later for another album. It feels good to kind of step back anyway, whether it’s timing on their end or lack of interest, whatever the situation is the reason why there’s not a new album in the can now. I am actually enjoying it because especially an album like W.E.T., you get a chance to kind of breath from the W.E.T. side of things a little bit, and when it comes out or when you even hear that it’s coming out, you’re excited again, as opposed to just doing another album every year. Every year. Same cycle, same cycle. This gives me a chance to kind of step back and the next album I can truly make special. So, and when it happens, it happens.
On upcoming plans – New Ellefson-Soto album’s coming out in May, so just on the cusp of W.E.T., another Ellefson-Soto. So yeah, if I’m doing so much that they all have to come out within months of each other, not only is there no break from people who listen to me, they’re like, “Oh my God enough. Jeff, take a break”. Now I’m actually giving myself a break. I’m letting them release what’s ready to get out there right now. But I’m actually focusing more on getting the live stuff I’m, I’m doing all over the world, doing all that kind of stuff again this year not necessarily a solo this year, I’m just focusing on appearances.
I’m singing with the Prague Philharmonic again, like I did a couple years ago, or maybe was it last year. I don’t even know. I’m so busy. We’re doing two shows in Vienna, Rock The Opera, I’m doing more stuff in Indonesia. So I’m doing mostly appearances this year. A lot of Bieler – Soto things, but I’m not doing a tour to promote any particular album. It’s impossible to do a W.E.T. tour because Eclipse are always so busy touring and promoting their records in their careers, and it makes sense, you know, they should be. That’s their number one thing. That’s their day job. I can’t expect anybody to put that aside for any of our projects as much as they can’t expect me to do it. That’s one of the reasons why we don’t tour.
On upcoming Soto-Bieler dates – We’re weekend warrior stuff with that at the moment, and we take it, we get it and take it where we can. But for the most part, yeah, I couldn’t agree with you more. I have such a blast with Jason because it’s one of those things you don’t really have to think about. You just do it. It’s so organic and the humor is natural. The wit, the banter. Everything is just, it’s basically, you’re just watching how we interact with each other when we hang out. It’s amazing that we get away with doing that in a concert setting where people aren’t just screaming, “Stop talking and play more music”. It’s more like they’re saying, “Stop playing music and talk more”. It’s a comedy show at a concert all in one.
On having Jaime Borger play drums on Apex – Having Jamie Borger on drums on this new album is almost like coming home. I don’t want to get sappy about it or emotional about it, but the first album we had Marcel Jacob in the videos with us, even though it wasn’t on the record, he was there to help me represent the Talisman side of things. On this new album, having Jamie help me represent the Talisman side of things is so important to me, and those guys duped me. They pulled the, the wool over my eyes on this one. Because when Erik sends me the songs and when I’m singing them, I’m always singing to working drums. They’re always drum loops or programs that you have today that you can create and make to your songs that you replace later with real drums. I’m so used to the productions that I get when I’m singing everything, and then it goes away until I actually hear the mixes. So, when Erik sent me the, the entire album, “Listen up and down, make notes if you want anything changed”. The first thing I noticed, like, “Man, Robban Back sounds different on this record. It doesn’t sound like his normal drum”. As the songs continue to play, I wrote Erik immediate, like four songs in. I go, “Is this Robban on drums?” And he said, “Nope. I’ll give you two more guesses”. I only needed one more because the first thing I thought, this sounds like Jamie. I said, “Is Jamie on this record?” He goes, “Yep. We wanted to surprise you”.
They didn’t tell me when he tracked the record, they told me after it was mixed. Of course, they knew I’d be happy about it, but I’m so thrilled to have Jamie alongside me on this record because. You hear the Talisman vibe together now. You hear that rhythm section and my voice and where a song might sound like a Talisman song, it even more so does because you truly have that nucleus of that sound. Kudos to Erik for pulling the wool over my eyes and I’m just so thrilled to have this new album really, truly representing why this band even exists. I’ve said this in other interviews, Jamie, musically comes from a very pop world. He lists, his influences are from the Sweet to Don Henley to Eagles to, Bryan Adams, Peter Cetera, Chicago, Richard Marks, he loves that side of music more so than the rock side of things, but when he plays rock, there’s something really cool. , I guess it’s kind of the same way as I always listen to R&B and soul music growing up. When I sing rock, you still hear a lot of that influence drawn in and pulled into the songs that I’m doing. Jamie has a way of making that solid that groove and that playing for the song, not playing to be notice me, notice me kind of drummer. But every once in a while, you get those moments and that’s where you know, it’s Jamie Borger.
