Operator
April 12, 2007
Lots of hard rock bands channel insecurity and pessimism into songs that spit and roar about the unfairness of it all. Operator takes the opposite approach. Fronted by consummate performer, multi-instrumentalist, mixed martial arts fighter, gunslinger, and all around modern renaissance man Johnny Strong, Operator is all about believing in yourself, embracing the moment and making the impossible happen.
A soldier of self-empowerment, Strong speaks with a commanding voice that rings loudly throughout Soulcrusher, Operator's major label debut. A triumphant album in the spirit of some of Operator's favorite artists - Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Guns N' Roses - Soulcrusher pays homage to the past, but maintains a spirit and philosophy that transcends its influences. More than anything, the disc is an inspirational reality slap, a high five to those who make the most out of life, and a dire warning to anyone who lacks the courage to follow their dreams. The band features Johnny Strong (vocals), Paul James Phillips (guitar, ex-Puddle of Mudd guitarist), Ricky Thomas (guitar), Wade Carpenter (bass), and Dave Moreno (drums). We recently caught up with Paul just before their Madpackers.com tour begins.
Ready for the tour to start?
It starts this Friday.
Looking forward to it?
Yeah, man. Just spending downtime right now just chillin’ and relaxing right now. Yeah, it’s about to get fun.
That’s cool. What do you do to relax before a tour?
I’m actually home right now, just chillin’ with my dog. I’ve got him over here. We’re hanging out, rolling the ball around. That’s about it, really. Just trying to lay low, sort of the calm before the storm.
Right.
Not trying to get into too much trouble right now.
I hear you.
Got to get healthy before I go out and destroy my body.
Exactly. You’ll have plenty of time to do that on the road.
Yeah. (laughs) You know what I mean?
How long are you guys going to be out of the road?
Right now I think we’re out about a month and a half right until the beginning of June and are adding dates as we speak. As of right now I think that’s it.
That’s not too bad.
Naw, naw, it’s a good little run, but hey, I love the road, man. So I’m like keep at it and keep at it. I’d rather be on the road than home.
I understand. What’s your favorite part about being on the road?
Just the live interaction, man. Playing live. That’s what it’s all about. Just translating the music and watching people in the audience get it and transfer that energy off the stage to them, giving them something positive to enjoy in a live environment, watching their reaction and how they feel about it, and being in a different city every night.
Is there a favorite part of the country you like best for touring?
You know, I can find fun in almost any place. The northwest is cool, like the Seattle, Portland area. It’s really nice up there. I like going to New York City, but I’m from the south, so I like being in the south as well. Pretty much anywhere, man. As long as I’m on tour I’m cool.
How long has Operator been together? How long have you been with them?
It’s been in different forms for a while. The current incarnation has been around about a year – a little over a year. I’ve been in the project I guess about two-and-a-half years now.
How did you get involved with the band?
I left my old band, which was Puddle of Mudd. I quit that band and put out calls to everybody I knew in the industry and friends in other bands. It was like, “Hey, I left this band. I’m looking. If anybody knows of anyone looking for a guitar player, whatever, I’m ready to get back out.” Strangely enough, one of the guys I called was a guy who signed Puddle of Mudd, an A&R guy. He was at Atlantic now and he called me. “I’ve got this band. You should go check them out.” I was like, all right. I went to L.A. and met Johnny our singer. Went to his house and started writing and just cliqued. We wrote like five songs in two weeks. There you go. Maybe three months later or so I went into the studio, recorded the records. It was kind of weird being signed by the same guy that my old band signed this band.
Did you need any downtime between bands?
I was ready to keep going. It was nice to have the time off, but I’m not ready to stop. I want to be the Rolling Stones to a certain extent. I’ll go as long as I can, man, as long as people let me keep going I’ll go. I was like, man this can’t be it. I can’t be done now. I’ve got to keep going.
Was it easy to write songs with Johnny?
Yeah, it was great. We have a lot in common. We like the same bands. We just cliqued right off the bat. Right when we started working together we realized it was a natural thing. We kind of looked at each other, and “Wow”. Everything happens for a reason. There’s a reason why we’re supposed to be together writing songs. Something out there has put us together. Now we’re in the same band. It was just really quick and natural.
How long have you been writing songs yourself?
I’ve been writing songs myself since I started playing guitar because I was too lazy to learn to play like Eddie Van Halen and all those cats. While everybody’s in their bedroom all day long finger tapping – that’s cool, but that’s like using a sentence. You know what I mean? That word’s great that you learned, but use it in a sentence. All these friends of mine are wasting tier time learning all this crazy stuff. I’m not really trying to do that. I’m trying to write a song. Because if you’ve got a solo but you don’t have a song, you have nothing. So that’s the first thing I did. I picked up a guitar when I was 15. I had my first band and we were writing original music when I was 17. Two years later I was already in bands. I’ve been in bands ever since that.
What made you want to take up music or get in a band?
My dad played guitar. He was in bands. He worked his way through college playing in bands. I was always exposed to the music that he was listening to and a lot of the southern rock bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Allman Brothers. I was exposed to that. Probably when MTV started happening was when like, “Wow. I’ve got to start doing that.” I actually got a visual, just seeing people on stage and fans going crazy. Man, you’ve got the power to just like go out and just rock and influence people. It was such a crazy thing – the life I wanted to have.
How has the reception to Operator when you’ve played out compared to other bands you played?
So far so good. We’ve only done a few shows. This tour doesn’t start until Friday. The small run that we did, when you’re the opening band and no one knows who you are and they’re there to see the headliner can go either way. You could have people twiddling their thumbs and buying beers and making out with their girlfriend. Or you can have people that are “Whoa, that’s a great rock band. Who is this?” And they go check it out. Luckily we’ve gotten a little more of that last reaction. By the end of the show we’ve got everybody standing up and rocking even though they don’t know the lyrics, they’re feeling a good rock band and feeling a good time. Hopefully that will continue as the record gets out and the single gets out and everybody knows the songs and we get bigger.
Were you guys pretty nervous the first time you got on stage together?
No. You can’t go into it with nervousness. You’ve got to suppress that and you’ve got to be like we’re going to go out and kill tonight and be the biggest band in the world tonight. Obviously you’re going to have a little bit of anxiety, but you’ve got to suppress that with the feeling that it’s going to be great. You’ve got to be positive. The whole message of this band is positivity and the belief that you can do it. Whatever you want to do in life you can do. If you work hard enough you can make it happen.
Johnny has led an interesting life. How has his experiences rubbed off on you?
He’s such a headstrong guy. I’ve heard people refer to him as a motivational speaker, which I find as funny. He does have thing. It’s kind of shaped the whole philosophy of the band. He’s been beat down a lot in his life and got back up and has had crazy things happen to him – you know like everybody has. You either sit there and cry about it all day long or you can be headstrong and make the situation better. That’s kind of his philosophy with the things that happened in his life. It’s cool. I’ve learned a lot about positivity for sure.
Usually when people have things that happen to them like Johnny did they tend to lash out instead of trying to empower.
Yeah. That’s the whole thing. Instead of taking it negatively turn it into a positive thing, which is like let’s make it better and bring this message out to people.
When you guys are writing songs how do you guys collaborate?
It varies. He’s definitely the songwriting leader for sure. A lot of things he has something going on and he’ll be like, “What do you think about this?” “That’s cool” or “I really don’t like that part.” Or he’ll come with a complete song and I’m like, “That’s great”. And that happens a lot, too. He’s a great songwriter. I’ll be, “I’ve got this great riff, can you do anything with it? I’m suck. All I’ve got is this cool riff.” “Okay, let’s write a chorus and do this and that.” Obviously he does all the lyrics, the melodies and stuff like that. It really varies. It’s just bits and pieces that we throw back and forth for the most part.
You guys are starting out on the Madpackers.com tour.
Yeah, exactly.
That seems like a very interesting concept.
It’s pretty cool. You mean the tour or the company itself?
Both of them.
What is the company? A packing company?
Yeah, dealing with moving students from home to the dorm and back.
Yeah, like specializing in college kids, right?
Right.
That’s pretty cool. And then they sponsor our tour going to colleges. I love it. It’s brilliant. I love it. Yeah, it’s cool. It should be a fun tour. I’ve done a few college tours before. College kids are crazy. It’s a time in their life where they want to mess up as much as possible without failing out. It’s usually pretty crazy. I’m looking forward to it.
- Dave Weinthal |
