Interview with Alibi

I guess today is Alibi day here at my site as I reviewed their CD and now I am posting an interview with them. I recently got to check in with Keith and Billy to find out more about this band.


Please introduce yourselves and what instrument you play.

KEITH SINNOTT - BASS
BILLY J. BARCLAY - GUITAR

Tell us a little about the history of your band.

BILL - The band was formed by Keith and I around 1991. We auditioned several drummers and singers before finding Wolfe ( Vocals ) and Adam Scott ( Drums ). We played clubs in CT, NY and Mass. for about two years and released two 5-song demo tapes.

Who are your musical influences?

KEITH - We have many musical influences, but some of the major influences were LED ZEP, VAN HALEN, RUSH, SCORPIONS, DEF LEPPARD JUDAS PRIEST & OZZY.

How did you come to get signed by Retrospect?

BILL - The people at Retrospect Records heard two of our songs on a compilation c.d. which featured Hard Rock / Metal bands from Connecticut. They tracked us down using the internet and asked to hear any other material we recorded. We sent them both of our early demo tapes and they loved the songs !

Did it seem odd to get signed at this point? How surprised were you?

KEITH - It was odd, since they contacted us 15 years after we wrote these songs. We were quite surprised !

Is your album all songs from back in the early 1990’s? What has been the response to your album so far?

BILL- The songs on our album were all written and recorded in the early 90's.
I feel that these were well written songs with great lyrics and very strong hooks. I think that anyone who likes metal bands such as Skid Row, Motley Crue, Dokken, Queensryche and Tesla will like our songs as well. So far the response has been great !

Who did you open for back in your prime? What were some of your more memorable shows?

KEITH - We had several good gigs at the famous TOAD's PLACE nightclub in New Haven, CT. One of our best gigs at Toad's was opening for Yngwie Malmsteen.

Did you ever do much of the self promoting as far as handing out and posting fliers and that sort of thing? If so then how much time did that take and did help spread your band name?

KEITH - We handed out fliers and hung posters like most bands did, but I think word of mouth was the best promotion we had ! After our first few local gigs the word got around that we kicked ass !



Did you get any interest from any labels back in the early 1990’s? If so then who?

BILL - We had a pro management company from Chicago that was interested in representing us. They had worked with some of the major labels and we had a meeting with them in an office at the World Trade Center in NYC, but the whole Seattle/ Grunge era was kicking in and heavy metal bands just were not being signed.

Why do you think that you didn’t make it back then?

KEITH - I feel that we were just a little too young and a little too late. If we were formed in the early or mid eighties I think we would have had a much better chance of being signed to a major label.

What were you doing after hard rock kind of got pushed out in the early 1990’s?

BILL - We all kept busy with different music projects and we even worked together in a called DAMNATION with a different vocalist. DAMNATION was very different from ALIBI, the sound was kind of like Nine Inch Nails meets Marilyn Manson with a good dose of synthesizers and electronic drums.

Do you think hard rock has made a comeback in this decade? If so then why do you think that is?

KEITH - I think hard rock is coming back around pretty well. Some of the newer rock bands like DISTURBED, SALIVA, STONE SOUR and AVENGED SEVENFOLD certainly have an 80's heavy metal feel to their songs.

If you could only listen to five albums during the next month then what would you pick?

KEITH - I would have to go with five classics : VAN HALEN I - GUNS N ROSES ( APPETITE FOR DESTRUCTION ) - AC/DC ( BACK IN BLACK ) - JUDAS PRIEST ( BRITISH STEEL ) - DEF LEPPARD ( PYROMANIA )

Is there anything that you wish you had done differently in your musical career?

BILL - I wish that the internet and mp3's and myspace were around in the early 90's, we could have gotten our music heard by a lot more rock fans !

Is there anything else that you would like to say about your band or your music?

KEITH - I feel that we wrote a bunch of really good songs ! I am confident that any hard rock fan that buys our album or sees us play live at ROCKLAHOMA this July will become fans of ALIBI !! I'd like to thank Retrospect Records for getting these songs out to rock fans everywhere !!!

http://www.myspace.com/alibimetal

***Thanks to Keith and Billy for doing the interview.