The Flying Monkey Podcast Episode 12 Celebrity Talk with Black Pearl

New York rockers Black Pearl join the show to talk about their New Album and latest single "Sometime Around Midnight".

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:10

In general, the remote market. You're watching the Flying Monkey Podcast.

SPEAKER_05 0:39

Well, welcome back to the Flying Monkey Podcast. And today we got some special guests. We got rock and rollers from the band Black Pearl, Eric Stevens and James Narrow. How you guys doing? Doing great, man. How you doing? Doing okay. So how's the East Coast? Is it warming up yet? Are you out of the iceberg stage of the year? Well, James, you're in Canada, right?

SPEAKER_07 1:01

Yeah, it's it's beautiful. It's been beautiful the past week, man. The weather's been cooperating for us. So I I'll take it, man.

SPEAKER_05 1:10

All right. Well, let's talk about rock and roll, man. Um so you the band's Black Pearl. And how long have you been uh been together?

SPEAKER_08 1:19

Well, I started the band in 2000. I was in Daisy Cutter, man. So we changed it to Black Pearl. The neighbor goes, you gotta name the band Black Pearl. That's not bad. And I was working at Disney at the time.

SPEAKER_05 1:35

And then that's when you were out in California. So then you moved out to New York, back to New York, because you're originally from New York, right, Eric?

SPEAKER_08 1:42

Yeah, originally from here.

SPEAKER_05 1:43

Yeah, so now you're back in Rochester, New York, and you got James. Now you're up in Toronto, Canada.

SPEAKER_07 1:49

Yeah, man. Yeah, I'm I'm here in uh I'm here in Canada. You know, I guess you're the friendly neighbor to the States. I I hope still. I don't know.

SPEAKER_05 1:59

Well, you know, government's one thing, people are different are another thing. So yeah, we're cool.

SPEAKER_07 2:05

We're all we're all in this together, man. That's the thing. We gotta love each other, man. That's the way it goes. That's it. Right. That's it. All right. So how long have you been singing, James? Uh I've been singing my whole life, man. Um, it all kind of started from my dad, who was actually in Black Pearl and did a whole bunch of vocals for Black Pearl. And my dad sadly passed away, and I'm I'm trying to carry on the legacy of my dad. So, you know, um, I'm working with uh a bunch of bands, and Black Pearl's been it's an absolute pleasure being in this band. The songs are pretty sweet, man. And I'm I'm hoping that I'm hoping that we can get the name out there and we can really get this thing rolling.

SPEAKER_05 2:47

I did some little homework. We'll talk more about it later, but I did some homework on the radio promo, and it's it's out there, so it's getting a lot of exposure, which is really cool. Um yeah, so so following back up real quick. Um, so that's pretty cool. I mean, you're carried on the tradition. Your dad, who for folks who don't know or will know once we name him, Phil Narrow, he was the singer of Talus, and uh, and so I you know, I knew your dad, and uh yeah, it was quite a shock to to get the sad news, and you know, yeah, but he was a phenomenal artist, phenomenal singer. Uh when I would listen to stuff he did, you know, not just his vocals, like wow, that's a great voice, but people don't always realize with vocalists or singers when they do their own harmonies and they come up with these insane, you don't really notice it as a listener, but there's this insane melodic harmonies of voices going on in the background, and it's like not the typical, okay, do the fifth and the seventh, and there you go, you know, or do an octave and back it up and just blend it. He did these amazing melodies that came out of nowhere. Like, how did you pick that up? You know what I mean? So, you know, and then I hear your voice now, and I'm like, holy mackerel, this is like amazing. So your dad had a lot to I mean, you could just it's like you don't miss a beat, it's just amazing how how great your voice sounds, too.

SPEAKER_07 4:05

So it's I appreciate that, man. That means a lot coming from you, man. And I'm I'm I'm glad that you're digging this stuff, dude. These are good tunes.

SPEAKER_08 4:13

So two more Tommy Morrison tunes on this album somehow.

SPEAKER_05 4:18

I was just gonna just say, you know, I remember when I I talked to you to Phil, your dad, and he's like, Yeah, we're doing some of your songs, man. They're pretty cool, you know. And he starts, you know, kind of telling me some stuff, which is really nice of you to say. And then so now you guys are doing a couple more, Eric just said. So that's that's a compliment. Thanks, guys. I'm glad you like it. So uh okay, so now we're doing a new album. Black Pearl's got the new album coming out. Is it completed yet, or is it you're still in the works with it?

SPEAKER_08 4:45

Still in the works. Um, there's gonna be 10 songs total. Five originals, five covers. Okay. Um James is right now working on uh track number three. We are already got them all in order and stuff. It's just a matter of completing all the musical tracks. And when they get done, I send them up to Toronto, and then I let my boys up there do their magic on it.

SPEAKER_05 5:12

Isn't that amazing? Before we all had to be in the same studio in the same room, and now you can just kind of you know say, hey, let's ship these over to Toronto and then we'll send it out to a guy in LA. You're still in the works of the album, but you've released a single already, right? Yeah, tell us about that. It's it's actually a cover song, and so everybody knows this song. It's sometime around midnight. Yeah. So why don't you tell us what brought you to do to decide to cover this to years ago?

SPEAKER_08 5:39

I heard that tune, and I go, you know what? He's telling a pretty good story, and I can relate to that. So we dropped it. James did a great job, and then Steve did a great job on on the uh mix, and then AJ killed it on the master, and then the video it just like came together.

SPEAKER_05 5:58

I was looking at at some of the stuff at the radio stuff that uh most people don't get to see. Um, so he got it sent out to like 41,000 stations, which is huge, huge promotion. And it's worldwide. And then I went, I started looking at this map thing here to see like, you know, where where are these guys getting their airplane? And so it's just pretty wild. You're all over the globe. You got United States, United Kingdom, and then you know, obviously, you know, it's all all of Europe, so France, yeah, Canada's Europe. And then you then I'm looking down and I see you're all over South Africa, you're all over all over South America, Central America, Mexico, and then you're even over in Australia and New Zealand.

SPEAKER_08 6:42

Yeah, then I get a call from uh this guy named Dave Serraro from he's got this show on the um iHeart Radio Network, and it's called The Culture Show. And he you know, he uh interviews all kinds of big name talent and up and coming talent. And he's like talking like we're the next best thing since sliced bread. So it's on uh YouTube right now. It's doing good. What's the YouTube station for your band? Oh, it's called uh Black Pearl Music Videos. YouTube.com, you have the slash, and then type in Black Pearl Music Videos, and you go right to homepage.

SPEAKER_05 7:22

Yeah, so right now I'm gonna play a clip of your of the new song here, and we're gonna let the one listen to a little bit of that. And for folks who are listening, if you want to hear more about the band and stuff, you can go to blackpearlmusic.net.

SPEAKER_02 7:41

And it starts sometime around midnight. For a minute or two.

SPEAKER_05 9:20

Yeah. And and the recording engineer, Toronto. How long have you been playing drums?

SPEAKER_08 9:24

Eight. Start taking lessons at ten years old. Oh, so you've been playing a long time. Yeah. And then all your life.

SPEAKER_05 9:40

Then you got into the rock band. Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 9:44

And I got into rock bands, and then the real fun started.

unknown 9:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 9:48

So who's your who's your influence as is as like a drummer growing up?

SPEAKER_08 9:54

Listed my along uh Tommy Aldridge, Neil Purt, Carl Palmer. Jeez. Who else? Alex Van Halen, who I met and partied with, actually. Cool. Cool.

SPEAKER_05 10:09

So so James, when did you when did you your dad get you singing? Like probably right like two years old, right? As soon as you could speak, you were singing.

SPEAKER_07 10:18

Yeah, man. I I like to say, like, the second I was I came out of the womb, I was singing, man. Like it was it was it was instant, you know, and and watching my dad up on stage, uh, it just drove me to want to be a singer even more. And it's crazy because my dad's from Rochester, New York as well. And a lot of my family lives in Rochester. So I'm you know, I'm a dual citizen, which is really nice. It's easy to get to the states and work and not have to have P2 visas and all this type of stuff that Canadians need to have to get across the border to the states. So, and like he was my favorite singer. Like, if I were to say anything, and I know it's I know it's like uh it sounds like um I'm like messing around with that, but if anyone that knew my dad and knew his voice, like they all said that he was their favorite singer, you know, and I learned everything from him, and it's funny because uh his other favorite singer was Lou Graham uh from Foreigner and all the you know black sheep, and he's from Rochester, New York. And instantly when I started listening to Foreigner, Lou Graham was one of my favorite singers too. So it's crazy like how many amazing talented musicians have are coming out of Rochester, man. It's it's unreal, you know, and Black Pearl being in Rochester, super cool too, man. Good music coming out of Rochester.

SPEAKER_05 11:40

I think Chuck Mangioni is from Rochester as well, right, Eric? Oh yeah, oh yeah. Oh yeah, you know, so I mean there's all kinds of different styles of music. That's hilarious. Well, James, I got another question for you, real quick, because I I see these guitars hanging around hanging on the wall in your studio. Now, do you play what you what other instruments do you play besides sing?

SPEAKER_07 12:01

Uh yeah, I play guitar as well. Um I I play bass, you know. I I kind of dabble on the drums, not as good as Eric, but uh, you know, I I play a little bit, you know. But vocals and guitar are like my main my main instruments for sure. Do you write music, your own songs too, or do you just Yeah, I write I write my own music as well. Um I'm I'm in a bunch of like tribute acts as well that are traveling all over the place. Just did a whole string of shows in Texas with uh 70s tribute where it's all just music from the 70s. I'm in a super tramp tribute where I do all the Roger Hodson stuff. Uh yeah, I'm in uh Doobie Brothers tribute. I play with a Canadian local guy named Andy Curran who uh started who was a part of the band Coney Hatch. I was I was in Lighthouse as well, a big Canadian staple band as well. So One Fine Morning, Sunny Days, those kind of stuff, those kind of tunes. And just playing a bunch of cover stuff. I have an acoustic duo, so play a lot of acoustic guitar. I think I have like 32 guitars, so I'm just constantly getting mad at me every time I bring home another one. You know, I gotta hide it somehow so she doesn't see it.

SPEAKER_05 13:17

That's hilarious. So now, Eric, you were telling them that you're doing five five originals on the album, and you're doing five covers. So the next one I heard was uh you guys are covering a Tina Tina Turner song.

SPEAKER_08 13:30

Oh yeah, simply the best. I've always loved that song, and I go, we can rock that up. First heard it on a remember uh sitcom came out a while ago. It's funnier than hell called Shit's Creek.

SPEAKER_01 13:45

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_08 13:47

And they played it on the one dude with lip sync in it. It was hilarious. And I go, that tune is awesome. Killer chan. Oh yeah, I go, we can play that. So then I got Jeffrey to do the guitar, he did a great job. So yeah, Brad did a great job on bass. There you go. Can't wait to see how uh James does on this.

SPEAKER_06 14:12

She's not easy to to sing, too, man. That's right. This is gonna be your great news challenge, but I think you can handle it, James.

SPEAKER_05 14:19

Yeah, he's got a good point there. That's a that that's a trick.

SPEAKER_08 14:22

Do the other one, you want to do it in your way.

SPEAKER_05 14:25

That's that's the key thing. But sometimes, but then there's these other great guys I've seen come in and try to do stuff, and they're like, they can't pull it off. It's like it's like, dude, it's so easy. Why can't you do it? But they're just not, they don't feel it. It's not as easy as people think. Just hey, you know, listen to the song and then just go sing it. It really, you gotta find the right song, and if you can't feel it, then and you guys know this. If you don't feel it, it's really it's not happening. I notice drummers end up being some of the best singers and songwriters. Yeah. Well, you know what? Steven Tyler used to play drums, Bill Collins played drums, Don Henley. Um, you know, even Peter Chris, he he sang. But you know, like my one of my favorite drummers was Neil Perk. I would I've and Rush was one of the bands I've seen more than any other band.

SPEAKER_08 15:16

Back in the day in Wired, when we used to do covers, we were known as the only man around that could do rush tunes. Yeah, I was the only one around that could get close enough to pull pulling off Neil's shit, you know. And I practice that was a tune of theirs we spent two years rehearsing it to get that's how complex it was.

SPEAKER_05 15:39

Every one of these guys in that band was insane. If you if you people think about trying to play the bass lines that Getty Lee plays and sing what he sings, I mean, how does he do that?

SPEAKER_07 15:48

I mean, really. Getty was recently on um uh Rick Beatto's uh show there, and Rick Biotto, another Rochester uh legend, yeah. Uh he asked Getty, he's like, What are you doing to prepare for these types of things? And Getty's like, I just play it a thousand times. Yeah, that's it. He's like, it's muscle memory. It's like he can just doesn't even have to think, it just goes. It's just it's just in him at that point, you know? Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_05 16:18

It's that gift, you know. Every one of us, you know, and everybody, everyone's got a gift, you know. But like with in the music realm of talking, it's just we've been given something that it just happens. We're boys bowie saying, hey, you know, we listen to music growing up, we get all these influences, they come in one ear, and as it comes out of us, it's just redefined in in the way we we were given a gift to to do it, you know. And when he was talking about his songwriting, you know, Bowie was awesome, he was crazy.

SPEAKER_07 16:48

Oh yeah, love Bowie.

SPEAKER_05 16:50

Yeah, who's your biggest influence musically, James?

SPEAKER_07 16:55

If it's not my dad or Lou Graham, it's uh I I'm the huge 80s like hair metal type of guy. Like I love Montley the Crue. I love I love Harem Scarum. Who's it? Another Canadian band. I like a lot of Canadian bands. I guess it's just because I've grown up in Canada that I'm well yeah. Triumph.

SPEAKER_05 17:17

Oh, I love Triumph. My god, that was another band grew up so I'll tell you, I was listening to other tracks in your guys' album. Um, and I there was the one, is it Whiskey and Wine?

SPEAKER_08 17:27

Yeah, yeah. That's the that's the one that just got done mastering today, and I heard it. I go, holy shit.

SPEAKER_05 17:34

Yeah, it sounds great, you know. But it was funny because when you're when James is mentioning the 80s bands, because you know I'm the same way, I love all that the rock and stuff. But the first thing that came to mind when I heard that was Y and T. Yeah. So I was like, oh my god, that's like I could hear Y and T, you know, doing that, you know, and I just had that feeling then that the way it was just arranged, and it was just like Ripped in like 1989.

SPEAKER_08 18:00

Okay, well, yeah, well, that makes sense because Nikki's proud of that. He's playing bass on that track.

SPEAKER_05 18:07

Yeah, Mickey Rips, otherwise known as Mickey Parada. Yeah. Shout out to Mike. And uh where's the Big Z bend?

SPEAKER_08 18:16

Big Z's hanging out, R V, him and his girlfriend, they camp out there on the golf course. There you go.

SPEAKER_05 18:26

He travels the world with every major band and uh then he retires on a golf course. He's been around the world four times. We're gonna wrap it up, but real quick, um folks go to blackpearlmusic. Check out information about Black Pearl. And uh James is like the world traveler doing 25 million bands at once. I don't know how you do that, man, but you could good going. But where can folks find you as well?

SPEAKER_07 18:58

If you go on Facebook, Instagram, uh, you just look up James, J A M E S, Gnarl, N-A-R-O, and I'm like the first thing that pops up. So you can find me right there, you know, just James Gnarl. And on YouTube as well. You can find me on YouTube as well as James Gnarl.

SPEAKER_05 19:15

Wait, now Eric, do you got um for does Black Pearl have any social media pages or is it just the Black Pearl Music channel?

SPEAKER_08 19:22

Facebook page, and also there's a bunch of stuff on uh what is it, Bad Camp and uh SoundCloud. And then of course there's the YouTube channel, which is Black Pearl Music Videos. So YouTube.com, Black Pearl Music Videos. See our latest video plus the interview videos up there. Oh, and uh the funny thing, well not funny, but it's real interesting. The the most views we've gotten is the one that Phil did. Um the tune that you wrote. Uh Kickin' the Can? Kick in the Can, yeah. It's a great song.

unknown 20:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 20:03

Oh yeah, that's when we put that together, Tommy. That was a long time ago. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 20:08

I was writing that in Corona, California.

SPEAKER_08 20:12

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 20:15

I remember doing the snaps.

SPEAKER_08 20:17

Yeah. Nikki's blowing the harp.

SPEAKER_05 20:20

Yeah, that's right. Nikki was playing playing the harp. That's cool. All right, folks. Well, hey guys, it was really it was really great having you on the show and talking to you. Uh, we're gonna we're gonna lead out here with a little bit of another song, Whiskey and Wine, which is one of my favorites off the album. And yet I have more to hear than we all do. So make sure you check out blackpearlmusic.net and uh make sure you subscribe and like to our monkey podcast as well as the Black Pearl YouTube channel.

SPEAKER_08 20:48

I like the logo, the flying monkey. Love it, man.

SPEAKER_05 20:52

All right, guys. Well, thanks for coming on, and we'll have you back on when we when the album's completely out, and then maybe you guys got some shows lined up and we can we can promote that as well. So thanks for coming.

SPEAKER_06 21:02

All right, sounds good. Thanks a lot, Tommy. Appreciate it, man. Uh thanks, Tommy. Thanks, everybody out there. Have a great one.

SPEAKER_00 21:10

Hey, baby, here's the Juan Burr.flyingmonkeypodcast.com.