After a stellar career with some of the best in the business – including Yngwie Malmsteen, Journey, Talisman, Sons Of Apollo, W.E.T and Trans-Siberian Orchestra – Jeff Scott Soto has released his seventh solo offering Wide Awake (In My Dreamland), yet another album full of the vocal brilliance that seems to effortlessly flow from his soul.
Soto sat down with HEAVY during the week for an entertaining chat that often degenerated into chaotic madness but still managed to hold it together to talk about the new album and more.
After some 90 albums with a plethora of bands, HEAVY starts by asking Jeff if Wide Awake (In My Dreamland) sees him finally settling for his own company instead of – in Australian terms – being a band slut.
“I’m the biggest musical prostitute out there,” he laughed. “A lot of that has to do with first of all this is what I do for a living. I’m a musician. I make a living from music so part of it is I have to make a living but the other thing is I love doing it. I get to make a living doing what I love so why would I compromise the things that I wanna actually try or experiment with or add to my arsenal when this is what I do? Does anyone ask a doctor well you work in the ER and you’re constantly doing your doctor work all the time, don’t you need a break? Don’t you need to stop doing that for a couple of years and try something else? No, that’s what a doctor does. They do that for a living and it’s the same thing as a musician. I have to make a living number one, but I absolutely love doing all these different kinds of things to keep me challenged and interested and continuing doing this stuff.”
In the full interview, Jeff goes deeper into the album, how he keeps things interesting after so many releases, finding ways to push himself musically, what keeps his passion alive, his ultimate supergroup, playing with Billy Sheehan and Mike Portnoy and the correct and incorrect way to pronounce Yngwie Malmsteen’s name.
