Back Talk: Joe Perry

Back Talk: Joe Perry of Aerosmith
The mighty axman on cool videogames (such as his own, "Guitar Hero: Aerosmith"), the wonders of vinyl, surround sound, and "Shoot 'Em Up."
By Mike Mettler
Sound & Vision Magazine - June 2008

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SV: Tell me about Guitar Hero: Aerosmith (RedOctane/Activision). What a coup to be the first band to have the entire game dedicated to the arc of your career.

JP: When I saw my son Roman playing Guitar Hero a few years ago, I was blown away. I pick up a lot of stuff from my kids, and I find out what's going on out there that affects the whole entertainment industry. The main thing I've learned here is that kids today really appreciate the classics.

When Cream did those reunion shows in New York in 2005, I was up in Vermont at the time. My son Tony asked me, "Dad, what time are we leaving for the Cream show?" And I said, "Ah, I don't know if we're gonna go or not." And he went, "What do you mean? Are you kidding? We gotta go. This is it. I never got to see them. They're making history." He was 20 at the time. That got me thinking, "This is something. He's really getting it — not just as a musician, but as a kid from this younger generation, appreciating that kind of music and putting such importance on the chance of getting to see Cream play." So I rethought it and said, "I guess we'll go." And we did, and they were great.

SV: I totally agree. I saw the third night myself; what an amazing show, totally worth the price of admission. It was also cool to see the cross-section of the generations of people there, much like what you guys get at your shows.

JP: We do get that cross-section of ages, no doubt about it. Though there's less of a "they'll never do this again" vibe at our shows. Cream came from that time period in the '60s where it seemed like so much was happening. It was such a different era in the way music came down the pipeline. It wasn't unusual for a band like Cream to put out a record or two and break up, and then the guys would quickly join up with another band. It was definitely an interesting time, a fantastic time with talented guys and girls coming out with all this great music. To have been 17, 18, 19 years old and see all those bands while growing up in that time period was really a blessing for a musician.

SV: A lot of good vibes and good music came out of that era, for sure.

JP: Yeah. And the band tried to reflect that feeling in how we put this game together. We gave it a viable story with subplots. The obvious thing was to follow the chronology of our career. We're a unique band — we're still together after 35-plus years with all the same guys, just barely holding on [laughs]. We're glad to have a job without having to have a real job, you know, and we have a great time playing the kind of music we love listening to. Our story is one that a lot of bands can relate to, from writing the first songs to doing the first rehearsals and gigs, right up to where and how we play today.

On a bigger scale, this game shows another way fans are getting their music. It looks like videogame companies are the new record companies, because some bands are releasing their new singles and albums on games first. It's a great format for getting songs out there. I mean, when do you sit down and listen to music anymore — just listen, and not do anything else? Now it seems like it's always in the background when you're doing other things.

In Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, you really have a chance to get a bit closer to and deeper into the tunes. You actually have to learn the songs to win, so it's a great way to get people to really listen to them and find out what we're doing. It's a blessing, really.

SV: The beauty of it is we'll probably get Guitar Hero: Aerosmith II, and/or you'll make new downloads available.

JP: Oh yeah. Actually, as soon as us gimps get our act together [Perry had knee surgery back in March], we're going to start working on a new record. And when we get a few tunes done, we'll probably release them so that people will be able to download them and input them right into the game.

SV: On another tack, there's a vinyl revival going on now. Do you like LPs more than CDs?

JP: Without a doubt. For rock & roll, you can't beat it. Nothing sounds like a well-mastered vinyl cut. It doesn't even have to be heard on an expensive record player. There's something about hearing that needle in the groove, man. I just got the remastered 15-LP AC/DC Vinyl Box Set [sony, 2003], and it sounds incredible. I'm listening to it on 20-year-old JBL speakers, and they sound just as good as ever.

SV: I've always felt that vinyl helps you reconnect with what got you into listening to music in the first place. What do you like better about records?

JP: It's the warmth, the bottom end — and the high end, too. You can hear the bass sound warm, and the midrange for guitars; anything in those frequencies sounds great. Actually, all the frequencies seem to have a warmth you can't get from CDs.

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Photo credit: Melissa Mahoney

SV: Any albums that stand out for you as go-to LPs?

Led Zeppelin. The Stones. Jimi Hendrix. They just come down on you, man. Listening to albums on a good pair of headphones — that's an unbelievable experience. Hey, you know what? That's when I sit down and listen to music and do nothing else.

I was glad to see Aerosmith put out [2004's] Honkin' on Bobo (Columbia) on vinyl.

Yeah, we really tried to stick to our guns on that one. Everybody in the band was into it. There are certainly some advantages to CD, no doubt. But you go to all this trouble to get to 96k, and it still has to get squeezed back down to 16k because that's what CDs are.

SV: Let's talk surround sound. We discussed it when your solo album, Joe Perry (Columbia), came out in 5.1 in 2005, and it was f***ing great.

JP: Well, thanks. I think if you're a devout fan and spend time sitting down and really listen to music, 5.1 is a fun way to go if it's been done right, like they used to do with the old English records. That's how we got all those cool Beatles records with all the vocals on one side and all the music on the other. That drove the Beatles crazy since they didn't record it that way, but as fans, we hear a Beatles song basically a cappella with music on the other side. It's fascinating, almost like getting a bootleg of a studio cut, or something that they would have mixed to take home that night as a work tape. They would say, "Geoff [Emerick, their engineer], run me off a cassette so I could listen to it overnight." Very often, as a musician, you'll do that: Put all the guitars on one side and the vocals on the other, or just the drums on one side. And that's what these records sounded like, so as fans, it was a blessing. The artists didn't look at it like that, though: "This isn't how we wanted it to sound. We're selling these to America?" It was a whole different era.

SV: Did you hear or see the Beatles' Love project? The surround mix on that one is pretty cool.

JP: Oh yeah, I saw that show in Vegas. [My wife] Billie and I went. It had been open for a couple months when we saw it. It brought up so many different feelings. Growing up during that period, those songs were the soundtracks of our lives. That music accompanied so much of what happened in that era.

SV: It's living history, the chronicle of the last 45-50 years.

JP: And we're still alive to hear it. We talked to the sound engineer, one of the guys who worked with George [Martin], and found out how they put it together. The masters are actually in the vault there in Vegas, though maybe they're not there now. They really made sure every single thing was right. They dedicated it to George [Harrison], as well as to John [Lennon]. The project was George's pet thing. He was the one who really wanted to see the thing through. He didn't get a chance to see the final product, but he did see some of the early stages.

SV: You must have crossed paths with George Harrison one time or another during your career, right?

JP: Never did. I met John at the Record Plant in New York, in passing, in the hall. He was working upstairs. He had sealed off that floor. Ringo [starr] was up there too, I think. I just happened to be in the hall and he walked by. I was totally starstruck. I said hi, he said hi, and then he walked by me. I met Ringo when he was doing one of his All-Starr Band tours. I got to meet him backstage for a minute. I mean, he's a Beatle.

SV: So you never crossed paths with Paul McCartney?

JP: Well, actually I did, now that you mention it. It was at the MTV Awards, or something like that. Had a chance to talk to him for a bit. That was all.

SV: Anybody else you'd like to meet?

Dylan. People have asked me many times, "What would you still like to do?", and I think to sit in on a Bob Dylan song session in the studio — I could die and go to heaven after that. Someday . . .

SV: Tell me about your home theater setup.

JP: I have a three-lamp Vidikron projector with a Stewart Filmscreen screen. We have a Runco flastscreen TV for daily viewing. The bulbs on the Vidikron only have so much time on them, so I like to save them for when we're watching something big and with a lot of action. I'm still a big believer in the analog projectors, kind of like vinyl records. You really have to get the thing tuned every once in a while. People who are used to the clarity of the HD of the Runco go, "How come it looks a little dark?" You have to have the room dark and set up right.

I also have Bryston power amps. I use a lot of Bryston in my downstairs studio. We just have regular cable with TiVo. I like the way the TiVo looks. It's very intuitive.

I have B&W mastering speakers for my stereo with a Mark Levinson amplifier. I've got Ariel speakers for the fronts, sides, and for the back, and a B&W subwoofer. And then I have a Sony Blu-ray Disc player and a Toshiba HD DVD player.

SV: Any DVDs or Blu-ray Discs stand out to you as favorites?

JP: Most of the stuff I've seen recently has been on HD DVD, but I guess I'll have to concentrate more on Blu-ray now. One movie that really knocked me out is Shoot 'Em Up. I love that movie — the production values, the story, the whole thing. It's great. Paul Giamatti is one of my favorite actors. It's the first time my wife and I have ever watched the same movie twice in a row. It blew us away so much that we had to watch it again.