Interviews – Stan Bush – Botcon 2016

You got the touch! Stan Bush here, and you're

listening to the GeekCast Radio Network. Fish

are jumping today, huh, Dano? I guess so. Hey,

what's the matter? I don't know, Hot Rod. Come

on, you can tell me. Guess I just missed my dad.

Don't worry, Spike will be back soon. Oh, hey,

I caught something. Whoa, look at the size of

it. Yep, it's a whopper, all right. Hot Rod,

the shuttle's coming. Let's watch it land. Talk

about dull, Daniel. Mountain. A little to the

left. A little bit more. I am Solo. This time

around, I'm taking over Steve Megatron's podcast.

This is actually going to air on Geekcast Radio

and all things Transformers as well. Let's see,

folks. It's been about two years since this artist's

album, The Ultimate, came out. Since then, he

had a power mix for a certain Transformers theme,

and this year... At BotCon 2016 in my town, Louisville,

Kentucky, Stan Bush is reuniting with Vince DiColo

to put on a free concert. We're going to get

all that stuff, but first, Stan, hello, how are

you? Hey, how's it going? It's going. What's

been going on in the world of Stan Bush recently?

Well, just working on some new material, new

songs, and looking to make a new album during

this year. Hopefully get it out early 2017. But

looking forward to the show. Yeah, Vince and

I have spoken and we're real excited about performing.

It'll be great. The last time I talked to you,

The Ultimate had just come out. Or we had talked

like right before the release of The Ultimate.

Since then, as I said, you had the power mix

for the touch for the War for Cybertron. How

was that working with the War for Cybertron people?

They really liked it. Talking about Activision?

Yeah. I mean, yeah, everybody, the response was

real good. I remember he helped come up with

that arrangement. It was kind of a cool, like

a hybrid version of some different elements of

the touch from both the original and the Sam's

theme versions, kind of intermingled, and it

came out kind of cool. Yeah, it did. Very cool.

Because there were two different versions of

it, right? There was the power mix, and then

there was the epic guitar mix. Right, right.

Yeah, absolutely. So I have to ask, since we

have no precursor here, you say you're working

on new songs for a new album. Any details, or

are you just in early stages with that project?

It's pretty early stages. I have just a few,

a handful, but they're coming out great. It's

kind of like some of the best writing I've done

ever. I'm very excited about it. It's a neat

process, too. It's kind of like a puzzle when

you try to make everything come together just

right. As you know, it's not easy to create something

out of thin air. Oh, yeah. I know. Creating podcasts

out of thin air usually takes me... I came up

with Steve Megatron, who is usually the main

host here on All Things Transformers, co -creator

of the network with me for GCRN. We're eventually

going to be doing a TV review show, and I came

up with the format for that in four hours one

afternoon. But, yeah, usually it takes a lot

longer than four hours in one day. But, yeah,

any chance, and I ask you this every time I have

to. Any chance. The Touch has gotten so much

love over the years. We need an updated version

of Dare. Oh. Come on, Stan. I actually did a

new recording of the Dare. Redid it, and it's

very faithful to the original. Yeah, it was,

I don't know if you listened at all, but you

know the show Always Sunny in Philadelphia? Mm

-hmm. They used the song as a network promo for

that show. Danny DeVito's in the show. Anyway,

they used Dare like an ad for the show, a network

promo. That was pretty cool. We recorded the

song, and it came out real good. I was surprised

I was able to still hit the notes. It's pretty

high up there. Wow. I may actually put that on

a new release. It might be kind of a cool thing

to do because, like I say, the touch has been

kind of, you know, I've sort of done and redone

the touch. And, like I say, Dare has been kind

of like the one that's been mostly the original

all the way, you know. I said this, I think,

in one of the other interviews we've done over

the years. I said to you that... For me, the

touch is obviously Optimus' theme because that's

when it first comes in with the movie and his,

you know, fight with Megatron and all that is

when it first comes in. But Dare is essentially

when Hot Rod and Daniel are looking up at the

shuttle coming in. So I've always felt that Dare

was Hot Rod's theme and, yeah. Hot Rod always

gets a bad rap, and sadly, so does Dare. So I

think it's probably about, especially with this

being the 30th anniversary year of the film.

Oh, that's right. It is 30 years. It's hard to

believe. Yep. Wow. And that's going to kind of

segue into working with Vince. Now, I know you

guys did separate stuff for the movie. You did

the two songs. And how did that process work?

Were you guys ever working together? Because

I know he's mainly known for the actual scoring

of the film, but... Yeah, I didn't really know

him that well. He actually did some keyboard

tracks on my album back then, the Barrage album

on Scotty Brothers. He came in and played keyboards

on a few things, so I got to meet him then. But

yeah, I... Like you said, he was the scoring

guy and I was the artist for a couple of the

featured songs. It wasn't like we hung out or

worked together for a lot of time. Have you guys

worked together at all since then? We have a

little bit. We got together and wrote a couple

of times. I think it was 1997 was our first time.

I could have the year totally wrong. It was,

uh, I think one of the first, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. So, and we, uh, we've kind of kept in touch

and I had pardoned the pun, but he's, he's a

good guy. Uh, he's, he lives, you know, not that

far from here, maybe 10 miles from me. And, you

know, he's a good guy. He amazingly talented.

Wow. He can play. He's just an unbelievable,

virtuoso keyboard guy, you know. He could play

anything. So the BotCon concert, since that's

really why we're here, it's going to be Saturday

night, April 8th. No, that's Friday night, yeah.

Friday night, okay. That's right, Thursday, yeah.

It's Friday night, April 8th at 8 .30 p .m. It's

going to be here in Louisville, Kentucky at 4th

Street Live. For those of you who don't know,

who don't live here, 4th Street Live, it's a

funny story with 4th Street Live because that

whole area of downtown Louisville, that whole

section where 4th Street Live is and all the

entertainment district down there, it actually

used to be an old... basically a giant glasshouse

mall called the Louisville Galleria. Think of,

you know, when you see like Billy Joel's Glasshouse's

album with the glasshouse that he's got on the

cover. Essentially, it used to be that. And they

tore all that down and redid the entertainment

district down there. And what 4th Street Live

is, is they, every now and then, will put on

some concerts. Most of them are free, and your

old show is going to be free as well. What...

What was the process? Who approached who? Did

BotCon approach you guys individually? Did they

approach you as a team? How did that all come

about in getting this concert off the ground?

Yeah, the BotCon people contacted each of us

regarding doing a concert. And I think on most

of the emails back and forth, they just copied

both of us about performing and worked it out.

So, yeah. It kind of came down that way. Awesome.

What can we expect out of the concert? I know

obviously everybody wants to go in fresh and

whatever, but is it going to be a mix of his

scoring stuff from the movie and your stuff?

Is it going to be a mix of both of your all songs?

Because I know Vince also has done some sung

songs. He has sung a few times as well. So how

is the set list going to work out as far as that

goes? Well... I don't want to give too much away.

Right. It's going to be good, though. I know

Vince has been working with this other guitar

player named Kenny. His last name escapes me

at the moment. But he's kind of putting it out

there as almost like a duo with the two of them,

you know, which is kind of cool. And real nice

fella. I spoke with him on the phone, the two

of them, and talked about how we were going to

work it. And, yeah. Maybe we'll even get Vince

to sit in with us on Dare. Awesome. We're talking

about it. So we'll see what happens, I guess.

Put it like that. Maybe it'll be a surprise to

all of us. So with your end of it, because obviously

it's BotCon, you're going to play Touch. Are

you going to play the original or are you going

to play the Power Mix version? Oh, I would be

crucified if I didn't play the original. Wow.

No, I'm joking. But yeah, I'll be doing some

songs from the Ultimate. And, you know, it's

that other Transformers theme from, what was

that game? I think it was Fall of Cybertron or

War for Cybertron. Heat of the Battle. Yeah,

yeah, yeah. Well, I was thinking of the Till

All Are One. Anyway, we'll be performing that.

It's like a Transformers theme. Oh, yeah, okay.

Yeah, that was, yeah. Yeah, so I'm going to be

coming out with myself and the drummer I've been

working with and the guitar player from, and

he's also my producer, Holder Fath. He's a great

guitar player and he's also my best friend. So

anyway, it should be real good. We've been rehearsing

here in L .A., and then we're all going to fly

out Thursday, and then we'll have the show on

Friday. And I'll be on hand for the convention

all weekend as well, so anybody wants to come

by, it'll be great. I'd like to meet everybody

and shake some hands and all that. Awesome. Very,

very cool. It's always just the best. The Transformers

fans are like the best. Everybody I've met has

been real nice. Yeah, we tend to look up to the

people that influence our lives for the most

part. You know, I mean, no, seriously. I know,

and we've talked about this before, you and I

have. I know the original version of Sam's theme

kind of got a lot of flack and everything else,

even from me, because of the direction you did

with it. Going back to the original version and

going back, even the, both the power mix and

the epic guitar remix, love those. Like I said,

you know, for me, it's like, give Dara some love

already. So there's that. I'm going to be doing,

you mentioned you're going to do some songs from

the ultimate. Are you going to do anything from

Dream the Dream or is that too old at this point?

Yeah, yeah, we're going to do, I'm going to do

the title song, you know, Dream the Dream. So,

yeah. Yeah, so I'm really looking forward to

it. It should be great. I've been in touch with

the venue and discussing, you know, the logistics

stuff, you know, sound check, and they're going

to have some gear for us. You know, we'll be

bringing our guitars out, of course, but like

amps and drums and things, they'll be provided,

you know. So all that good stuff. Are you going

to? Are you going to have either at the concert,

like either before or after the concert, or at

VodCon itself, are you going to have any of the

CDs or any, like, Stan Bush shirts or anything?

Are you going to have any merchandise? Yeah,

yeah, I'll have all that. Yeah. Okay. I'll have

all that, CDs and everything and T -shirts. The

events and I are, you probably know this already,

but the two of us are going to be doing a panel

Friday morning at the convention. I think it's

at 10 a .m. or something on the first day on

Friday. Yeah, that's going to be a very, very

cool panel for people attending BotCon. Yeah,

yeah. I did a panel with Vince and I way back.

I think it was one of the ones out here. Yeah.

So, yeah. All right. Well, we look forward to

seeing you here in Louisville, Kentucky on BotCon

weekend. BotCon here in Louisville, people. BotCon

2016. Official Transformers convention is April

7th to the 10th this year. Come on out. Have

some fun. If you can't make it to the actual

convention, at least come to 4th Street Live

Friday night, April 8th at 8 .30 p .m. is when

Stan and Vince will kick off their free concert.

Anybody that was a child of the 80s and you're

coming to VodCon, you need to. It's a free concert,

people. Come on. You know. It's very rare that

any of us really get to see, like I said before,

people that basically shaped our childhood. So

come on out, have some fun, meet Stan, meet Vince,

all that good stuff. You can check out all of

it, everything, as far as BotCon on BotCon .com.

I'm going to try to at least be at the concert.

I don't know if I'm actually going to the convention

just yet. So there is that. I want to thank Stan

for taking the time. Steve might have something

else coming up at the end of this. I don't know

what's going to happen with this little interview,

so we're going to throw it over to Steve Megatron.

And, yeah, ladies and gentlemen, head on over

to BotCon .com for all the details. You can also

check out StanBush .com for all the stuff with

Stan. I don't know. I think it's VinceDeCola

.com for Vince's website, but I will put all

that in the show notes. In the show notes, folks,

you can check all that out. I ask you to hold

the line, Stan, and I'm sure Steve or somebody,

one of us, will be back after this. Thank you.

Come out, Autobot. We all must die sometime.

Not today, Galvatron. So, Megatron, what is your

reaction to the 2016 BotCon Beast Wars 20th Anniversary

box set? bloody hell. And you're not even in

it, Megatron. It's the Tri -Predacus Council.

They had me in the set last year. I was a ticket.

Yeah. And I was a letter. And I was a convention

exclusive back in 2006. Now this year, I am not

a part of this panel. Which is probably good,

because it's the Tri -Predacus Council. So yeah,

folks, as I mentioned a moment ago when I was

on with Stan, this weekend is VodCon 2016 here

in Louisville, Kentucky. I wanted to be able

to supplement a little update interview thing

with Steve here on All Things Transformers. We'll

probably put this on the GCR feed as well. But,

yeah, if you're coming to Louisville for Vodka

on April 7th to 10th, come on down, check it

out. You might see me there at some point or

another. I know I'm going to at least try to

get to the free concert at 4th Street Live. Do

it. Do it now. Yes. With Stan Bush and Vince

DeCola. And also, you'll see, if you go to VodCon

2016, you'll see Nautilus Prime. You'll see John

Nelson, as well as my namesake, David Cade. I'm

black and blue. Yeah, Venus Terzo. Grimlock has

green Greg Berger. Actually, we got two Grimlocks.

Yes, because David Cade. Battle of the Grimlocks.

Yes. And then you have Garakantra. Sure. Who

worked for... Hasbro. East, yeah. That shall

be not made. Yup. Yeah, I'm wondering where they

got this picture of Judd Nelson because he just

looks completely evil in that boardroom. He looks

like a very young Donald Trump at the boardroom.

Dude, you've turned into a monster. You made

me this way. Yes, you're probably right. You'll

have to grab your spark and I'll squeeze it and

make you cry. All right, folks. As I said before,

thank you to Stan Bush for taking the time to

chat with me. Thank you to Steve for coming on

and voicing his Megatron as always. As Stan Bush

would say, till all are one. There will be new

episodes of ATTF coming, so I do know that. We

haven't exactly figured everything out yet, but

I do know. That we are planning some stuff. So,

yeah. Everybody have a great time at BotCon.

Go see the free concert Friday night with Stan

and Vince. It's going to be epic and awesome.

Thank you again to Stan Bush so much. And...

I'm the least geek in you. I was going to say

Transform and Rollout, but that works too. Transform

and Transcend. Yeah. The Seeds of the Future?

My very little ass. It's a pity you... Autobots

die so easily, or I might have a sense of satisfaction

now. You got the time! You got the time! Arise,

Optimus Prime. Optimus.