Interviews – Stan Bush – Botcon 2011

I'm Stan Bush, and it's your time to listen to

the Geekcast Radio Network. Welcome to the GeekCast

Radio Network and This Week in Geek special interview

of Stan Bush. I am TFG1Mike and I'm joined by

Peacon Court Michael. Hello. Hey, how's it going?

Pretty good, pretty good. Everybody over at GCRN

pretty much knows Peacon Court Michael. For the

Twig listeners who will be hearing this inside

of our BotCon episode, you know, he's new to

This Week in Geek. We're doing BotCon stuff for

Twig this month, seeing as how BotCon is less

than a week away at this point. So yes, interviewing

Stan Bush. Again, this is my fifth time talking

to Stan. This is Michael's first time talking

to Stan, so breaking the cherry here. That's

so inappropriate. Well, I didn't want to say

it in the actual interview that we're going to

be doing here in a moment, but yeah. Stan Cherry

has just... A wrong thing to say. Yeah, the way

you're saying it now makes it wrong. It just

doesn't sound right. But, you know, basically

we're here to talk about Stan's plans for BotCon,

getting his thoughts on the fact that this is

the 25th year since Transformers the movie came

out. Most people will remember the Touch and

Dare in Transformers the movie. Stan has also

done a number of other things over his entire

career. Very, very, very cool. So any thoughts

before we get to the interview? You got the touch!

You're going to edit that out, right? No. Ha

ha! That's what's leading into the interview.

You got the power! Yeah! Hey everyone, this is

Mike Blanchard and I'm joined with my... Buddy,

Michael Wilson, we are from the GeekCast Radio

Network, and I am also from This Week in Geek.

This is going to be a dueling interview. For

GeekCast Radio Network, we're going to put it

in All Things Transformers, or we're going to

feature it for All Things Transformers, and it's

going to be a separate interview for This Week

in Geek. Today we have the great privilege to

talk once again with Stan Bush, the master behind

a lot of great Transformers -themed songs. Hey,

Stan, how are you? Hey, how's it going? Pretty

good, pretty good. So, Stan Bush and social media

explosion, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, you are

everywhere now. Can you explain this? Like, I

know that I've asked you this before about it,

and you said something about, oh, you were just

on MySpace and you were happy with that, but

how do you feel about the whole social media

explosion? Well, actually, it's kind of all new

to me. I think I'm probably one of the last people

to... to get involved in the social media thing.

I've got a friend that's been helping me sort

of get out there a bit on that stuff. So anyway,

but yeah, it's cool. I think it's a very neat

thing that people can check out what's going

on and all that and keep in touch. Yeah, and

it's an easy way for your fans to interact with

you. You've always been really open with all

the fans as far as fan interactions and stuff

like that. Do you have a preference between any

of the social networks? Not especially. Like

I say, I'm still sort of getting up to speed

on things. But yeah, I've always had this feeling

of indebtedness to the fans. Bottom line, they're

the reason that I'm even sort of here, you know

what I mean? And it's really important to me

to be thoughtful and kind and appreciative of

all the support that they've given me through

the years. It's pretty awesome. Yeah, very, very

cool. Want to take that next one, Michael? Sure.

Actually, I was still thinking about the media

explosion. Oh, okay. Go ahead. I'll let this

part out yet then. As far as, you know, you said

you had somebody else helping you on that. Is

that like a buddy or are you actually working

with a marketing firm? Well, actually, he kind

of turned into a buddy. He was doing a podcast

back east. He's from Philly. a wrestling organization

that does, they do events and all this sort of

thing. And so he's, he's, that's what he does.

And in fact, I flew to Philly like a month ago

and performed for this wrestling event that they

were, that they had called the King of Trios.

And his name is Mike Quackenbush. And he's a,

it's funny because we started talking and emailed

back and forth a bunch of times. And basically

he, he sort of helped me get going with this

stuff. And he's been sort of, Like I say, he

set up the Twitter and the, you know, Facebook

and all that stuff for me. So, yeah, Mike's been

great. Wow. Yeah, it's always good to get out

there on, you know, Facebook and social media

in general, because especially in your case,

it's going to help you talk with your fans and

get the word of mouth around a lot more easier

than, you know, just people who are doing it

on their own. Absolutely, yeah. So what are your

thoughts on the 25 years since Transformers the

movie in 1986? Well, it's funny because I remember

back when the original Transformers movie came

out, it was like, wow, this is cool. But at the

time, I mean, Ninja Turtles were much bigger

than Transformers at that time. Little did we

know that, you know. 25 years later, or even,

well, 20 years later, there'd be this, like,

huge explosion. And, you know, as far as upsurge

in, you know, coolness and all that, the Transformers

vibe, the whole brand seemed to just, like, explode.

Of course, the live -action films, the Michael

Bay films, was a big part of that, a big reason

for that. But it's just, I think the music, Vince

DiCola and myself having been involved in the...

The music stuff way back, I think that was another

thing that kind of gave it a bit of staying power.

A lot of people kind of grew up with those songs,

The Touch and Dare. And it's always cool to hear

stories about how those songs maybe had a positive

influence or something like that on somebody's

life or whatever or childhood. And it was like,

wow, that's cool. Anyway, but it's been a cool

ride, you know, to be associated with. Like Vince

DeCola and I did our first BotCon was back in

97 in Rochester, New York. And then, of course,

the 2007 one back in Providence was the next

one I went to after that. And I've been to, you

know, nearly every year since then. Yeah, I mean,

with... With the music, you know, people are

like, sometimes people really make me mad because

they're like, oh, Stan Bush, he's only done the

touch and dare. And I always tell people, no,

he's done much more than that. I mean, not just

the Transformers theme music that you've done,

but all your other music as well. But you're

now known for like current Transformers stuff

as well. Like Till All Are One was in war for

Cybertron. Dr. Smoove and Randall put that video

together for your time off of Dream the Dream.

How did that come about? Actually, they did that

on their own, I guess. They contacted Mike, I

was telling you about, and I guess he was in

touch with them. They were going to be doing

the video for your time, but they did that on

their own, which I thought was really cool. And,

of course, the War for Cybertron thing was great.

I had a chance to visit High Moon Studios where

they created the Transformers game. And it's

quite an impressive facility down there. That

was last summer when I went to Comic -Con. So

anyway, they were great down there. But I can

say that kind of was something contemporary.

And then when the Transformers game came out,

they did a GameStop promotion. were a national

commercial. They used the Touch for that. And,

of course, the Touch had also been on some TV

shows. It was on American Dad and also Chuck

on NBC. Yeah, it's everywhere. Yeah, so it was

really cool. It was like this new sort of breath

of life and all that. And, again, you pointed

out that I do have a whole other body of work

that... More people in sort of Europe and Japan

know about me than in the U .S. It's just kind

of worked out that way. But, yeah, I've got,

well, Dream the Dream was my 12th album, so I've

done a whole bunch of stuff that a lot of the,

you know, people don't even realize, you know,

that, you know, the sort of, I'm still an 80s

rocker at heart. Aren't we all? Yeah. It's funny

that you point out the Ninja Turtles as far as

what was popular back in the day and the fact

that you have the staying power where you're

still here and you are still producing music

that people find relevant. And if you think back

to who did Ninja Turtles, it was Vanilla Ice.

Oh, that's true. What's he doing? I have no clue.

Actually, it's funny. I know what he's doing

nowadays. He's in home renovation. He has a television

show on the DIY Network. Oh, okay. Nice. So nice.

Wow. We need to get Stan on the DIY Network.

Pronto. Yeah. I don't know. For me, out of all

the stuff that you've done, honestly, the one

album, that I can listen to front to back is

Dream the Dream. It's such a fluid album. How

did that... I asked you on Twitter the other

day, you had said when you released the single

Heat of the Battle that it was planned to be

on Dream the Dream, but it just wasn't done in

time for the album release. If it had been done,

how would you have incorporated that into what

the track listing of Dream the Dream is? Oh,

I have no idea. But yeah, you're right. We were

kind of in a hurry to get the album finished,

usual story. But then also thank you for the

kind words on the album. Yeah, I'm very pleased

with how it came out. Yeah, the album came out

and Europe was getting impatient for it because

we'd spent a year and a half writing and recording

the songs. But yeah, just after it was released

and all that stuff was when we wrote... Heat

of the Battle. So we kind of just put that out

as a single, so it's available on iTunes as a

single. But my friend Lenny Macaluso, who co

-wrote The Touch with me, we wrote that one together

as well. Awesome. How did the music video for

it come about? You have a music video for Heat

of the Battle on your YouTube channel. Yeah.

And it's these two chicks playing War for Cybertron.

How did that... How did that whole project come

about, doing a music video for Heat of the Battle?

Well, my friend Art Douglas, we did the video

for Sam's Theme, that other one as well, with

Art. Art's a really good video director. He also

did a military tribute video with The Touch,

ostensibly from Iraq, but it was really out here

in the California desert. But it was to honor

the troops in Iraq. And Afghanistan. But, yeah,

Art, he's a buddy and lives here in L .A., and

he's a film guy, and so we put together the video

with the heat of the battle one. We shot part

of it at my friend's studio in front of a green

screen, and then that's where I was superimposed

over the War for Cybertron game footage. The

girls, let's see, one of them was an actress.

Well, they're both actresses, I guess, but the

one sort of main one, the first one you see,

I don't remember her story exactly, but she's

done a lot of big stuff, you know, commercials

and everything else. Art knew her, had worked

with her on something else, and so he got them

involved and, you know, he basically edited it

all together and everything. Very cool, very

cool. What else do we want to talk about, Michael?

Well, I thought we were going to talk a little

bit about BotCon and what Stan was going to be

up to there. You're just going to do autographs,

right? You're not performing? Yeah, I'll be there

all weekend. I'll be at his table and everything,

and I'll be promoting Dream the Dream album.

This year there's no concert. They have the new

film coming out and, of course, the Prime TV

series. So there's a whole lot of other stuff

going on, and there just wasn't going to be enough

time to fit in a concert this year at BotCon.

But since I'm here locally, it's in the L .A.

area, so it was easy for me to make an appearance

there. So it's always good to be able to meet

and greet the fans and so forth, and I always

enjoy going. Go ahead, Michael. I'm sorry. I

just jumped right in there. You're going to find

a karaoke place, right? Maybe. Last year we did

that. I was up there on stage with my good friend

Greg Lombardo from Hasbro. karaoke thing together.

That was funny. I somehow missed that, but I

did see the video afterwards. Somebody posted

that. I didn't see it. We'll have to send you

the link. It was last year. We were looking around

for footage after the fact. I remember seeing

it somewhere. With everybody's video phones now,

you've got to be really careful what you do.

Exactly. You don't know what's going to be recorded

while you're up there on stage. Now, are you

going to have the second annual Give Stan Bush

a High Five? Oh, yeah, definitely. That was Brian

Kilby last year. I don't know exactly what that

was supposed to be. It's like a homegrown grassroots

effort. They get a picture taken of you high

-fiving everybody. Yeah. Yeah. It's a really

cool thing. I just enjoy meeting everybody. Everybody's

been so wonderful to me. Now, when you're not

doing autographs this year, like when you just

have your own time, will you explore the convention

at all? Will you go into the dealer room? Will

you go to any of the panels as long as you're

not obligated to be signing autographs? Um, yeah,

they, um, I don't think they have any panels

scheduled, but, um, but yeah. No, I mean, will

you just attend the panels? Like you're just.

Oh yeah. Yeah, no, I'll definitely make the rounds.

I'm going to be, uh, like to see what all's going

on and, uh, you know, talk to people, probably

do a few interviews and things too. And, uh,

I'm not sure if, um, if Activision is going to

be there, but, uh. I've done stuff with them.

Of course, The Touch came out on Guitar Hero,

and it's also available on Rock Band, too, in

case anybody didn't know that already. Yeah,

I mean, like I said, The Touch, Dare, Till All

Are One, most of your Transformers themes are

over video, like you said, Guitar Hero and Rock

Band. It allows people to be able to learn how

to play those songs, and I think that's a great

thing. Yeah, it's cool stuff. I really enjoy

the whole thing. One of the things, I've been

doing some local gigs playing classic rock stuff

with some buddies of mine around here in California.

We're playing tonight, actually, in Simi Valley.

I have this acoustic trio with a bass player

from Quiet Riot and another good friend of mine

who plays great guitar and also killer violin

player. He's really good. So we do this kind

of unplugged classic rock stuff, and it's really

awesome. That's kind of a new thing we just started

doing. So why can't we find this on YouTube?

Because that would rock. Yeah, that's something

we really should put on YouTube. In fact, you

just gave me an idea. I think I'm going to arrange

to have somebody video that and post it. Break

out your iPhone. I would love to see or hear

whether it's like a... an actual MP3 track, or

whether it's you doing it live, I would love

to hear what an acoustic version of Dare would

sound like. Oh, that's a good idea. Yeah, that

song actually comes off real well. It's kind

of high, but I can do it and maybe just transpose

it down a little bit, key -wise. Yeah. Wow, that's

a good idea. Oh, we are doing Love Don't Lie

in this thing. I don't know if you remember that

song, but it was also on the, it came out on

the same album as The Touch, on the Barrage album.

On In This Life? No, no, I'm sorry, the original

release of The Touch from 1987. Oh, okay. I'll

have to go back and look for that song. Yeah,

I can send you that album if you don't have it.

Oh, cool. Awesome. So what's next? You're currently

doing promotion for Dream the Dream. What's next

for the rest of 2011 for you, beginning of 2012?

Are you making new music, or are you just in

promotional mode for Dream the Dream and getting

that as big as you can get it? Kind of both,

yeah. I'm doing promotion for Dream the Dream,

but I'm also beginning to write for another album,

so I'll probably... be recording it over the

next year or so and release it sometime in 2012,

I imagine. Have you done a European tour or a

Japanese tour? Let's see. It's been a couple

of years since I've been to Europe, so nothing

on the horizon as of this moment, but that's

certainly something that down the line I'll probably

do. What about a U .S. tour? Well, yeah, I mean,

I'm definitely open to things. Like I said, I

did the show in Philadelphia about a month ago,

and it's sort of with my schedule and so forth,

it makes more sense for me to just kind of, you

know, in and out, just do a show and come back

or whatever. And then because I'm so busy all

the time doing recording and what have you here

in L .A., it's like it's hard for me to leave

for an extended period of time, you know, doing

a tour or anything like that. Just the logistics

of it. I definitely love to perform, and it always

amazes me because wherever I go, if we get the

word out, there's people who show up with albums

I did 20 years ago, wanting autographs and things.

I have these closet Stan Bush fans everywhere.

It's funny. It's great. It's actually really

cool. Very, very cool. All right, Stan, we would

like to thank you for joining us. We'll ask you

to hold the line, and we will be back after this.

Bush, his thoughts on 25 Years of Transformers,

the movie, social media, and the way he does

his album promotions and everything else. Very

cool. Would love to see him at BotCon this year.

Unfortunately, I can't go. What about you? What

did you think of talking to Stan for your first

time? Actually, I've spoken to Stan before at

BotCon. This is the first time I've actually

interviewed him. I did talk to him and recorded

it at the last podcast. So no, this isn't the

first time. This is your first time on air. This

is the first time recording something with him

in a conversational manner. You know what we

ought to do? We should take a road trip out to

LA and we can see him like play a gig, uh, acoustically

and maybe catch a rock sugar concert. Oh my God.

That would be so awesome. That would be awesome.

As I said in the beginning, this will be featured

on all things Transformers, and it will be featured

in This Week in Geeks topic show for May, which

is BotCon 2011, seeing as how BotCon is less

than a week away. So I have been TFG1 Mike, and

you are? Pecan Court Michael. As far as like,

hey, you know, it would be cool. We could go

out there and we could see Sam Bush and we could

see Rock Sugar and have a whole total geek out

weekend. and probably get mugged and beaten by

police officers. For what? Being fans of Stan

Bush and Rock Sugar? No, I'm just saying, if

you're in L .A., you know, the chances are dramatically

increased that you will be either A, mugged,

or B, beaten by police officers. Okay, that's

going on YouTube. You think I'm lying. Take two.

Or three at this point. Yeah. Shut up! Now I'm

on fire!