Jeff Scott Soto is one of the most amazing voices in music. While he is acclaimed by fans and fellow musicians, he is still considered underrated by many. His resume includes but is not limited to being the vocalist on Yngwie Malmsteen’s first two albums, a brief stint in Journey, the frontman of Talisman and his own group SOTO, a member  of Trans-Siberian Orchestra, the lead vocalist of Sons of Apollo, the vocalist of W.E.T. and somehow also has time to be a solo artist. You might think that spreading himself all over like that might dilute the product that he produces, but I think it just makes him that much stronger.

We interviewed Jeff before his latest solo album Wide Awake (In My Dreamland) via Frontiers Music SRL. As with other artists, it is a strange time to be releasing music in this pandemic that we’re all a part of. Your normally release an album and then promote it with videos and touring, but all of that has changed. Just making music videos has proven to be a tricky task to take on. We talk about the new solo album, working with the amazing Alessandro Del Vecchio, the incredible song and video “Without You” and so much more.   

Jeff! 

Jeff Scott Soto-  Greetings! 

How are you, sir? 

I’m doing well, and yourself? 

Doing, uh, not too bad at all. (Laughter ensues). 

Okay, we’re lying. We’re not doing that great! 

Exactly! Exhausted from work, but thankful for my job. There are so many struggling right now, that I am thankful to be working like I am.

Yeah, at least you got the other gig like this. 

True, now it’s fun time! I know we’re limited on time, so let’s jump into this. How do you know when it’s time to put out a new Jeff Soto album? 

I guess it’s this little internal clock in me that’s ringing, (chuckles) Just kidding! To be honest with you, it’s usually really based on when the last one was out which was in 2017. So it was a few years, but I was going to wait until 2023. Normally I don’t spend that much time between records, but normally I wasn’t in 15 bands. So we spaced it out this time because  we (Frontiers Music SRL) have a plan of doing something extra special for our 20-year anniversary together. 

Oh wow; that’s a great teaser!

To be honest with you, I would have taken another year off of the process but because we had W.E.T. in the pipeline.  With all my work and all the time I have to put in Sons of Apollo, it made the most sense to go into it now.  That being said, we weren’t doing the album for the sense of contractual agreements.  When we did discuss parameters of the record and they talked about doing it with Alessandro Del Vecchio (Hardline, Jorn, Revolution Saints, etc), all of a sudden my interest was peaked. I love Ally! We’ve been friends for a long time, but the idea of actually working together finally, especially with all the work and the person he’s proven himself to be.  I thought this was actually going to be a great thing and I’m glad we’re doing it. 

Alessandro, that guy’s a beast! 

Yeah, I don’t think he sleeps, or eats. I really think he’s a machine that they plug in at the end of the night. He is a machine. He’s in the middle of mixing like four albums right now. He’s talking about my album and he remembers every single detail. He could say ‘hey you hit a minor third instead of the major third on this note. Could you change that?’ He’ll know exactly what he’s talking about, as opposed to me going, you’ll have to be a little more descriptive. 

I’m guessing you fed off that energy too? There’s no way you couldn’t have.

Absolutely. This is one of the few, if any, I think that I’ve relegated complete reign and control to. Musically, I loved what I was doing, but I’ve never recorded another album like that, and I didn’t want to be in charge of screwing it up.  This album, it started off mainly with me handing over the reigns to Alessandro, because I was so damn busy, ending the TSO tour and going straight into rehearsal with Son of Apollo. I knew I was going to have to give him a little more control of the reigns because of the timing  to  get things done.  When I saw what he was doing and I heard what he was doing, I  truly felt like I was handing going over my newborn son and saying, please take care of him and raise him well. He turned this into the monster that I would have never been able to do in real life.   

I’m Music-I was watching “The Making Of….” videos you put out. 

Yeah, yeah,

I’m such a music nerd! I eat that stuff up; I love it. It’s interesting to me that he gives you the music and then you to write the lyrics. I don’t know what your process is through the years. Is it tough to come up with what you think is going to be what fits that music? I mean, the right lyrics, or does that just flow from you?

It’s pretty much a no-brainer. When I hear a song that doesn’t have anything, it’s a naked canvas. The music dictates what the song is going to be about. I don’t have to sit there and rack my brain ‘well this could be this, and this could be that.’ I listen to it, and I literally just sit back and it comes to me. Like if a melody comes to me, from that melody, the way that melody is sung, is the way lyric comes out of it. It truly is a very organic process. I don’t want to use the old clichés and stereotypes, but that is really kind of life itself. I don’t like spending a lot of time overthinking things because, as much as people say, ‘you want to make it the best you can’ you don’t want to rush it. Use the 1st things that comes up,’ but to be honest with you, the first thing that come up are usually the best of me. I’ve done the overthinking process, I’ve done the trying to be the overachiever, and trying to sit there and know I could do better. You know what? The most organic ideas usually are the ones that work the best. Those are the ones that to me, represents who I am and what I am. That works for me for better or worse. 

Earlier you had said ‘hand over your newborn son’ and I was going to use the analogy of “if you’ve got more than one kid, you don’t even want to pick a favorite kid”. But, on this album, and it’s funny because the video came out for “Without You.” This is definitely a song that’s got a special place in your life. As long as you’ve been doing this, to raise it up as one of the best of your entire career, man. This is definitely special. 

Thank you.

Yeah, and the video. We need to talk a little bit about that too. Man, I absolutely love that.

Absolutely! The thing is, with Alessandro. He told me later in the process. He didn’t tell me why he was writing the song. He didn’t even give me like a map, or a blueprint of whatever he’s going to come up with for this record. He already knew, but didn’t want to tell me. Basically, he ended up sending me song after song. He demo-ed and wrote all the music to all the songs you listen to there.The guitar solos, the whole nines and obviously we did everything we needed for the record. They were just skeletal for me to be able to write lyrics into and record my vocals. With that being said he told me his process was,  ‘I wanted to create an album of all the elements & all the things that I love about Jeff Scott Soto. What I love about your career, that I love about the things that you’ve done, the things that I know your fans love what you’ve done. I’m going to take all the demos and make this album like that.’ I might’ve been a little concerned but he was just going to start repeating things that I’ve done or are taking things and just gonna make a plagiaristic copy of this song. I would have been worried about it if he told me that in the beginning. By not telling me and just doing it, I didn’t think about it or hear the songs that way.

So every song I’m just thinking, oh my God, this is great.There wasn’t one song that I turned down. This is great and until he had enough songs for the record. We didn’t write extra ones. There are no bonus tracks. We wrote just enough for the record because every song was a good as the last. As much as he tapped into who I am , he also wanted to tap into my influences. He knows I’m a huge Queen fan and I’ve never really nailed that end of the spectrum as far as a song that I think Queen may have done or been a part of. Yet, he wrote me a song that has all of those Queen influences in it and that’s why that song is so important to me.

The video is amazing and to be shot under Covid conditions.

That’s my guy Thiago (Kiss). He’s done all of the Soto videos and I’ve been working non stop with him. He doesn’t make music videos, he makes mini movies.I love his eye, I love his vision. I tell him I don’t want to mess with his creative eye. Here is the music, here are the lyrics, go! He always delivers!

You know, we were planning on releasing this in July. I had to rush and get my vocals done in January because of the Sons of Apollo tour. One positive thing about Covid is that we delayed the album’s release and that gave me a chance to come back and re-do some vocals. I was able to tweak some things and chance somethings that I probably would have regretted if I had not done so.

Back to your original question, this was at the height of when Brazil was hit really hard and I wasn’t sure if I could get a location that we can get away with because in Brazil, as well as a few other parts of the world, they had more policing with their lockdowns. Here you can go out and go shopping as long as you wear your mask. Out there, you need officiating to leave your home.

I can’t tell you how many times I watched that video. I just kept clicking replay time and time again.

That’s awesome! He’s all about landscapes and having some sort of story line to grasp on even if the story doesn’t necessarily connect with the lyrics.. To be totally honest, the story had nothing to do with suicide.It had nothing to do with loving someone so much that you’re going to miss them if they die. On my end, it was more of a positive song and a love letter than something so dark and sad. He turned it into that and it still works. I write in double entendre anyways and with his videos my double entendre become triple. I write that way because I want the listener to decide what it means to them. If I say ‘I want to rock and roll all night and party every day’ you know it’s not about saving lives and conquering the world. My songs are like reading a novel and letting the listener decide what it’s all about.

August Zadra from Dennis DeYoung’s band plays lead guitar on “Between The Lines.” Where was that connection established?

He’s one of my best friends and we’re practically neighbors. Our families are practically connected. We hang out, my wife is best friends with his wife, etc. etc. I know his talents are beyond words and he was one of the other signings that I was able to bring to Frontiers.He has a great project called Waiting For Mondays with a great singer named Rudy Cardenas. Part of what I do feels so much better when I know I can pay it back.

You’ve been doing this for quite a while now. If you look back at where you were with your first album in 1994 Love Parade and compare it to where you are now, the 2020 version of JSS. .

I’ve done this before in a different way when I was asked if I had any regrets in life or if I would l do anything differently.If I met that JSS from 20 or 30 years ago, I would tell them anything. Without those negative moments or painful or hurtful ones, I would not know how to correct them later. I live with zero regrets in my life and I would not change a thing. I respect my peers, I respect my fans and I have to make music that I feel is right to me. If I can’t do those things then I don’t need to be in this field. We’re getting lessons from this whole lockdown thing that we’re weren’t prepared to get. You’re not sure how long you will be locked down although some people are saying six months, a year, who knows? We’re learning to adapt to it and it;s w=showing us what type of people we truly are as well as the people that we know truly are or what we thought they were. This is one of the biggest lessons in life that we could ever ask for without asking for it.

How about the importance of family? Didn’t a lot of us take that for granted?

Nobody will have your back in life like family.

You may not always like them, but you’ll always love them.

What’s that old saying? You can’t pick your family, you can only pick your friends.

Promotion wise, there are really no live shows going on, so what do you do? Videos and livestreams?

I can give you my own personal view. I’ve been waiting for this phase of the interview cycle so that I can discuss it.I didn’t want to make a formal announcement on this but about a year ago, I made a decision. As Soto or JSS, I think I am going to hang it up now. I’ve been doing this for the better part of 18 years. I put out out an album, then I go out on the road to support it. In those 18 years, I haven’t seen a massive amount of growth. At some point you have to decide what’s more important, your sanity or your family or all the things you fight and work for in life that you miss out on. I miss out on a lot for very little reward on the financial gain. I’ve gotten to the point the point that since it really hasn’t reached that level, then I have to make this decision that I can’t see myself as a 55 year old man  going out there with hall these mandates and all these new ways of doing live shows. I think it’s going to be a game where only these bigger bands are going to be able to survive. I think I’m just going to stick to the main things on my life with TSO and Sons of Apollo with other occasional performance here and there. I just don’t see me going out on the road as JSS anymore unless there’s a massive change in demand. It’s unfortunate that it had to come to that but I think you’re going to be seeing a lot of that happening.

You have to do what’s best for you in the long run man.

I love seeing the people and thanking the people but at some point you have to raise the bar and if it isn’t far enough then you have to shut the game down for a little bit. If you call me up and say that my album sold like pancakes and the tour is ready to d=go, then I will be running with my bags.

We like to wrap things up with what we call “3 For The Road.” Halloween wasn’t too long ago. Do you remember your favorite Halloween costume as a kid?

Chewbacca; it worked out really great because of my height. 

We recently lost another music icon in Eddie Van Halen. Do you have a favorite Van Halen album or song?

If I do have any regrets in life it would be never seeing Freddie Mercury live or meeting Eddie Van Halen. As for album, Fair Warning, hands down. To me, the best Van Halen album ever. By then, they knew how to play their game, they knew how to throw o out their chops and they had the most diversity. There were no covers and I think that album still stands up perfectly to this day. If it was a song, it would be “Beautiful Girls” from Van Halen II.

You and I are both Prince fans and I saw your post about the Super Deluxe Collector’s Edition of Sign of the Times. I would be happy too if Santa got me that for Christmas! Do you have a favorite Prince song?

Sounds cliche especially by fair weather Prince fans, but I think “Purple Rain” is the ultimate perfect song. It’s simple, it gets to the point. It doesn’t have a lot of words or clutter. It gets to me every time that I sing it or hearing it. I never tire of that song. There are certain songs on the radio that you go ‘oh no, not that one again,’ but never this song.

Well alright, alright, alright! Our time is up my friend. As always Jeff, it’s been a pleasure. Another damn solid album from you and I do want to say that “Lesson of Love” is a very rockin’ Abba song!

(Laughs) See, just when you think ‘I don’t know about this one,’ it turns into somebody’s favorite. That’s what I love about music man!