Interview: John Moyer talks new band Stereo Satellite

Concert Crap: How did Stereo Satellite get started?

John Moyer: After Disturbed’s tour wrapped up in February 2017, I took a couple of months off to hang out with my family and decompress, and also hang out with my friends in Adrenaline Mob (who I used to play for) in Texas. They performed in Texas, I went to two shows and actually jumped onstage at the last show together before they had that horrible accident. After the accident, I stayed in touch with the guys in the band, in particular, Mike Orlando who’s a really good friend of mine. In October I flew up to New York to hang out with Mike, see how he was doing. His spirits were low, he didn’t have a band, he was in pain; I can only imagine what he was going through. When I was there, he started playing me this music he’s been working on for two years and it doesn’t sound like Adrenaline Mob, it’s very different, it’s very fresh and exciting, and it was making me think of this music I’ve been getting into lately, a different kind of rock. So we were talking about it, “I like this,” “do you think you can help me make it happen, get it to the next level”, “yeah let’s try to make this happen.”

So I went back home to Texas and made a few phone calls and ended up talking to Paul Gargano from Metal Edge Magazine, an old friend of mine. He heard the music and said that Lukas Rossi would be a great singer. I didn’t know much about Lukas, but Paul did, so I did a little research on Lukas. He was in Rockstar Supernova; I saw some videos of him doing covers on Youtube and I was blown away, he was so good. I and Mike were like this would be amazing if we can get him in the band. So I called him up and spoke with him, sent him some of the material, then flew to Nashville where he lives and met him face to face. Besides the fact that he’s a talent, he is a nice guy, a genuine human being, the kind of person you want to be around because he makes you feel good about yourself and that’s the kind of people I like to be in a band with. So after meeting him, I’m like this guy is awesome. I called back Mike Orlando and I’m like “Mike, I know I’ve been talking to him on the phone, but in person, he’s even more of a sweetheart. This is gonna be such a great thing for us.”

So Mike and Lukas start writing together, 2-3 songs a week, it’s insane, they’re going back and forth. Lukas has his studio, Mike has his studio, they’re sending me tracks. I’m like you guys are a machine, they’re putting together all this amazing material for us. Meanwhile, I was reaching out to different management companies and setting everything up. Now we were at a point where we needed to get a drummer, and people were telling us to get someone famous, but that’s not what we wanted it to be about; it’s about being with the best players. So we ended up going with Jordan Cannata – who is not super well known, but he was in Adrenaline Mob during the last tour and according to Mike, Jordan’s the best drummer he’s ever played with and I got to agree, I think Jordan’s an amazing talent. He was the final piece in the puzzle for forming the band. Now we’re actually all in New York doing rehearsals because we’re going to have our debut show on Shiprocked coming up in about a week.

CC: With so much material, what made you decide to release “Glass Houses” first?

JM: We just felt it was a killer song. I love the flow of it. It’s hard to decide when you pick a song and why. I just felt like I wanted our first song to be a rocker, very upbeat, and I felt that the song embodies a lot of the characteristics of how the music sounds in general, this up-tempo fresh feel to it, so it made sense to me to have this be the first glimpse of what we’re about.

CC: Is there going to be an album released?

JM: I would say so. We’re going to make some singles at radio coming up very soon. We definitely have more material than an albums’ worth, so it’s putting together the pieces. We actually have two albums’ worth of material, so we’re playing the long-term game, like here’s what we want the first album to sound like, here’s what we want the second album to sound like. So we’ll be ahead of the game as far as the creative process, but we need to catch up on getting the awareness out there, getting the single in the hands of people who can get the word out and let people know who Satellite Stereo is.

CC: With Disturbed, are you going to be able to tour with Satellite Stereo as well?

JM: Yeah, Disturbed will be going into the studio this year, so I’ll be flying in and out to do some of that, so I’ll have plenty of time to tour with Stereo Satellite the rest of the year, for sure.

CC: What would the perfect tour for Stereo Satellite look like?

JM: In 2018 – us, Shinedown, and Stone Sour. In 2019 – us, Halestorm, and Disturbed, so I can do both bands hahaha

CC: Do you have anything else you’d like to add?

JM: Stereo Satellite has the one single out, “Glass Houses”, a second one coming out on iTunes when we start selling “Glass Houses on iTunes,” a record out this year, and hopefully lots of touring.

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Post and interview by Karen Shalev

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