Talas formed in the 1970s and disbanded in the 1980s. They didn’t reach the arena headlining status of some more commercially familiar names of that time period, but they did play a huge part of in that era’s music scene. After two studio and one live album, their bassist Billy Sheehan went on to join David Lee Roth’s lineup on his post Van Halen full length album debut Eat Em and Smile and the follow-up Skyscraper. Talas attempted to continue out, but soon disbanded. In 2017, Sheehan reformed Talas with a lineup featuring Phil Naro on vocals, Mark Miller on drums along with new member Kire Najdovski on guitar to play a charity event in Greece. The group continued to play live shows after that and then decided to record material that they had for a new album. Then, Covid happened and slowed that process down a bit. The band eventually completed the album, but unfortunately vocalist Phil Naro passed away in2021. The album is titled 1985 and it is set to be released on 9/23/22. Bassist Billy Sheehan found time to sit down with us and fill us in on the album and a few other things including his cooking skills and who his first celebrity crush was.

This could have been your fourth album back in 1980s. Were you guys just writing stuff back then? Had you demoed anything out?

Billy Sheehan: This really wasn’t designed to be our fourth record. We had a bunch of songs that we played live, but we had no intentions of doing a record nor had one been started. The songs were just left over when I left the band. Some of them were on a live record that we did but it was a hurry-up record. We were never really pleased with how it came out. So, this was just a collection of songs that we played in 1985.

So, you just decided to record them, of all times, during a pandemic?

Yeah, that was pretty much what it was. We played a bunch of live shows and we were having a blast. We thought, hey we can probably get someone to give us a couple of hundred bucks and we can go record it and that’s basically what we did. We had two ways of doing this. We could have brought everything up to date and modernized all the songs. We could polish them up and straighten them all out and do the 2022 version. Or, we could play them like we did back in the day with the same point of view, same spirit and same state of mind. We opted for the second option and it was great. We had a lot of fun doing it.

You mentioned same vibe and it’s amazing how you guys captured that vibe from 1985. I was a teenager in 1985 and going to concerts weekly because there was such an abundance of amazing music all around us. On my first listen to this album I said wow numerous times because I feel like I was being transported back.

Great, I am so glad you feel that. Our engineer Russ MacKay, who did the mixing, used to come up and see us. He knew exactly how it was supposed to sound. The guy has a good sonic memory. We talked about it and we knew we could slick it all up. You are absolutely right when you speak of 1985. That’s one of the main reasons that we named the album that. Not only for ourselves and what was going on in our own lives, but the time in 1985 was amazing. When I got out to LA in the summer of 85, Sunset Boulevard was like a Mardi Gras every night. The sidewalks were six people deep with hundreds of people around and bands playing all over the place. It was one of the glorious times for music in American and popular music history. It was quite amazing.

I have read a lot about the Sunset Strip and that era. I got to experience some of those bands a bit further on in their careers, but I never got to experience that particular scene in person. It’s amazing how the feel of that scene and the music that was produced from it has been passed on to multiple generations. I think that speaks volumes about the magic of the music from that era.

It’s pretty incredible. I see a lot of bands out there now who are still playing and have been around for a long time (laughs). I think it’s great! I see it at shows that we do where there are a lot of 2nd and 3rd generations from when we started and it’s a beautiful thing. You can kind of see why it’s carried on for so long. It was such a riot it was a blast and everybody had like minds in a room with bands that you love and all hell breaks loose and it’s such a blast.

Mitch Perry is only on two songs on this album and I was wondering if there was something that kept him from being on the entire thing?

He is a West coast Based and he was in the middle of several things. There was also another guitarist after him, Johnny Angel, and he was in several things as well. We didn’t have a lot of budget to be flying people in and out and for hotels so we got Mitch to do that remotely. He did a great job on it on the two songs that he brought to the band. We always love them and they were crowd favorites so we were glad to include them and have Mitch on them as well. It was such a great time when we launched this version of Talas it was overwhelming to a lot of people because they didn’t know how it was going to go. Mitch came out and was blazing on guitar! Mark Miller, Mark “Machinegun Miller” which became his nickname because he was unstoppable and then Phil upfront was incredible. He was such an entertainer, such a great voice and such a wonderful guy.

That had to be an emotional moment bringing Phil’s son James in to sing. Did he do that remotely or was he was he there in the studio?

No, they did it together. They did the vocals in Toronto and I produced them from Nashville. I used Zoom so I could see so I could see feel and their engineer Scott was on the screen and they could see me. Then there’s software called Audiomovers which they connected to the recording console and it sent that to another computer in my home in real time. I still don’t understand how they do it. I could listen exactly in real time in my studio monitors what was going down. Phil would be at the mike I could make sure he got the phrasing, lyrics,, pitches and correct harmonies and we laid it down in that manner. We recorded the body of the music at Mark Miller’s home at a house that he built from the ground up, for real, on a drumkit that he designed too and we just sat around in the living room. There are a couple of videos out that shows us laying the tracks down. The atmosphere was joyful. You mentioned James, well Phil was bursting with pride that his son could join him on a record. He’s such a great kid and has a really great voice.

You added one song, “Black and Blue” that is a new song. What’s the story there?

We started playing that one live and it was one of Phil’s songs. He was such a prolific writer. Being extinct dinosaurs, we thought why not do a new song. We loved the song and we loved playing at live. It was very Beatle-esque. Phil had a lot of Beatles influences on his writing. Phil did a great job and James sang with him on that one. As you know it was a bittersweet situation that we lost feel so soon after finishing the record I have to say that he was at that mic in Toronto and I was watching him in Nashville and he stepped up to the plate and delivered 200% every song. It was so amazing. We didn’t know how serious the situation was but he did. He stepped up to the mic with that burden and delivered and let nothing stop him. I was so taken by that, we all were and everyone within many miles of us we’re similarly affected by him doing that. He was such a wonderful guy, entertainer and a real hard-worker. Such great pitch, great songwriter and it makes the whole situation a little bitter sweet as you can probably imagine. As we mentioned earlier, with 1995 as a tribute to that time and state of mind, it is still for us a bit of a tribute to the legacy of Phil and he really delivered on this record. I couldn’t be more pleased with him. People that don’t know him well hear him on here at his best. People that do know him will be so happy to hear him doing what he does, delivering the best.

I have to add that lots of people can just step up to the mic and sing but I feel like Phil delivered a little more than just singing a song. He really delivered a type of emotional impact that you just don’t get from a lot of singers today. It’s something that you really can’t teach. It’s just something that’s a gift that you have is a singer. I feel like, even though I didn’t know him personally, this is something that Phil really did have.

I’m glad you feel that way cause that’s exactly how I look at it as well.

I was a bit confused trying to figure out how to read the title of the last track on the album and then your publicist told me to flip it upside down and it reads “4 Phil.”

(Laughs) On the Talas record Sink Your Teeth Into That, I did a solo called “NV43345” which is “Sheehan” upside down. So, I thought I would carry on that tradition a little bit and give Phil a farewell. A little bass composition to say farewell and thank you my dear friend.

In another 1985 reference, is the cover art for the album an original piece or something that you had created?

That was the amazing Hugh Syme, the amazing album cover art genius. He did album covers for Rush and a lot of other huge bands. We spoke with him about the album and concept and he came up with that. He was friends with Phil as well. So we are extremely grateful to him for contributing such a great work of art and it really sums up that whole concept of the record. We did get in the car, in a time machine and go back to 85 to record this. So the DeLorean out in the field was perfect. He was friends with Phil and I got to know him and he’s a great guy, He’s part of the team and we’re glad to have him.

Are you guys doing any type of live shows? Can you catch me up to speed with how you guys will move forward with this new album?

We did a lot of shows with the lineup that’s on the record. Sadly I have a similar situation when with Mr.Big when we lost our drummer Pat Torpey. We had some shows that we used a fill-in drummer with while Pat was on stage because he couldn’t play but he could sing. We had about another 10 shows that we were obligated to do after we’d lost Pat and we went out with Matt Starr, but it just wasn’t the same. Matt is a great drummer and singer but it just wasn’t the same. At this point we may do some shows with Mr. Big next year but I don’t know at what capacity we will. This is similar and I’m not sure what we will do as well. We may do a show or two in tribute to Phil as well. We’ve had a few singers come forward and offer their services so we may do that but there’s no date or any definitive plan. We would like to at some point to do at least a single show for Phil and if we can do more in the future we might and every show will be dedicated to him. 

We had a fan question from Stephen Price on Facebook. Everyone knows that you’re a bass player extraordinaire but I learned from him that you are an avid grill and BBQ enthusiast. He wants to know how you came about that lifestyle.

Yes I do a lot of cooking inside and outside. I’ve always been pretty good in the kitchen and I helped my mom a lot. My mom was an improviser where she would add some of this and some of that and a jar of this. Sometimes I will post something and people will say post a recipe but there really isn’t a recipe that’s why it never tastes the same each time. I just kind of make it up as I go. It’s an enjoyable thing and it’s good for people to cook and eat at home. So many people eat at restaurants or buy frozen stuff and it’s just not as healthy. The whole ceremony of cooking a meal and sharing it is an important thing. My wife is from Italy and they still have that same sort of tradition where people sit at the table and eat like they did in America in the 50s and 60s. Unlike today when the kids fix a burrito in the microwave and then run up to their room to play video games. People sit at a table and converse and hang out and it’s a really important thing. I’m not really a good cook or griller but I do have a couple of dishes that are pretty good. So stick with what you know I guess? 

Billy, I see that it’s almost time to wrap this up, but before I go I’d like to end this with a feature that we close all of our interviews with. It’s call 3 For The Road and they are three fun questions to throw at you. Do you remember your first celebrity crush?

Yes, it was Rosemary Clooney (laughs) which is like way, far back. I was a little kid and she was a singer on TV. She wasn’t young and hot but was a lady and she sang and she was kind of pretty. After that it was I Dream of Jeannie and Barbara Eden. I remember they wouldn’t show her belly button back then because that was like porn back then. Man, things have changed haven’t they?

And how! That’s a whole other conversation that we could have! If you could have any person, cartoon, historical figure, whoever be you’re your inner voice, who would it be?

Jeepers, I’d say Clint Eastwood has a great voice. He’s a very emphatic character or at least he portrays them. He doesn’t take any nonsense off of anyone. So I think that would be kind of an inspirational kind of character and a good way to keep your head up and keep walking forward.

Lastly, we just kicked off football season. Are you a football person and if so, who is your team?

Being from Buffalo, New York, the Bills are kind of my default team. It’s tough being a Bills fan because we’ve been to the Superbowl three or four times and never got it. This year looks a little encouraging as we went up against the Superbowl champs in the first game and we pounded them. I have a business associate and he is such a football expert and he will call the play before it actually happens and he knows exactly what they’re going to do. I always defer to him to see how it’s going and he seems very happy. There may be a light at the end of that very long and dark tunnel.

The Bills are my wife’s team, so I keep up with them as well. If they stay healthy, Bills fans might just finally get that Superbowl win! Billy, as always, it’s been a pleasure. Thanks for keeping the vibe of 85 going my friend with this new album. Until next time buddy!

Thank you for your time Johnny; great talking to you again!

Purchase a copy of 1985 HERE

I’m Music Magazine Owner/Editor Johnny Price

https://www.facebook.com/talasv2

Band Photo: Jeff Gerew