Bassist, singer, songwriter, music producer are just a few of the hats worn by Saving Abel’s Scott Wilson. Wilson calls Colorado’s Sunshine Studios home base. Sunshine Studios is a 17k square feet facility that houses a recording studio as well as Colorado Springs most popular rock venue, Sunshine Studios Live.
Music Madness had a chance to catch up with this hard-working musician and producer as he was preparing to hit the road with Saving Abel.
Music Madness: How are things going out in Colorado Springs? Is it a new studio and music venue?
Scott: Well, actually this place has been here 12 years. We are a 17,000 square foot venue and the recording studio has been here. It started as a studio and then turned into a venue. Now we are the go-to place in Colorado Springs as far as rock venues. Yeah, it’s cool, man. I’ve been doing studios since ’94 when I opened my first one. I produced a lot while working with other bands along with, of course, Saving Abel.
Music Madness: I noticed that you are involved in a little of everything from country to rock and producing to playing. Do you have a preference in the genre of music you prefer to be involved with?
Scott: I love playing music so all of it feels the same, of course, some of it is more challenging than others and the challenge is always fun. But producing, I just love to create. I love to stack different melody ideas and compose as an orchestra would do, but a lot of times, do it with rock instruments, or bluegrass instruments, or whatever it is. I try to put a little twist on what the normal thing that instruments would do. That’s one of the things I always shoot for. But just stacking different melodies and counter melodies and making it different from what the typical would be.
Music Madness: I noticed that the musicians and their style of music you work with ranges from one extreme to the other. What do you look for when you take on a new project?
Scott: On the recording side, the big thing to me, if I’m going to produce a band, and I don’t produce everything that comes to our studio. I’ve got four engineers and there’s one guy that I’ve worked with since the ’90s and he engineers for me. My job is to orchestrate music and I don’t work with everybody who wants to work with me. My big thing that I look for is hunger and talent. The other one, if those two subside, let’s just say, is they have the song. I’ve had a couple of bands that, they’re not the greatest musicians, they don’t really care what they do, but then they play me this song and I go, “That’s a song. That’s something I can’t pass on. I need to work on that song,” because either it has hit potential or it has something that could be easily shopped to placement for movies, things like that. A lot of times, people just write what they’re feeling, they stumble on the greatness, and they don’t even mean to.
Those are the three criteria, really, that I look for. You have the song, which matters, that’s the most important ingredient in everything, but talent and hunger. So many people out there think they want this career in music and they could never possibly handle it because they can’t even get people to come to their own show.
Music Madness: I’ve noticed, especially with a lot of these younger bands, it’s that preconceived notion of being a rockstar. They get on the road and then they’re like, “Oh, shit, I can’t do this. What happened to fancy hotels, and women, and all that cool stuff. I don’t want to sleep on a bus or in a van with a bunch of guys that are smelly and unshowered,” and they don’t last.
Scott: Yeah. It’s the preconceived notion of what this is. The band I’m in, we have a triple platinum song, we sleep in vans sometimes, and we drive all night without sleep. This past run we just did a West Coast run, we called it 18 Days of Christmas. We went out and we were in our Transit van, which is a big, nice really luxurious van. It has six bunks in it so it’s like a bus, but it’s tiny and it’s the first time we went a long distance with this, without our big tour bus that we’re usually in. We’re seasoned musicians, I like to put it that way, and we’re looking at each other going, “Do you remember the van, the actual van? Like I’m exhausted now so I can’t imagine being in just a regular van because I’ve got a place to lay down in this van and I’m still toast.”
These guys coming up need to really think about how bad they want it. I have a lot of access to young bands because of the venue here. Three or four local bands almost every show and I’ve worked with a lot of local bands here in Colorado Springs. I tell them all “Make sure you want this because I can help you get to the next level. I’m not saying what level that’s going to be, I don’t know, that’s up to you. But I can help you to where you can go out on tour, maybe play with some people you’ve never played with and see the country. Make sure you are willing to give up everything you have, and make sure you’re willing to not sleep, and make sure that you don’t have $6,000/month of bills- because you’re not going to make that. You’re not going to make that, right away anyway.”
Music Madness: When we talk about marketing themselves, I hear a lot of “Dude, I just wanted to play fucking music.”
Scott: That’s one of the things you just hit the nail on the head, music is secondary behind marketing in this industry. You can have the greatest song on the planet and if you’re not good at marketing, or you don’t have the money to push that song, or the means or the machine to push behind it, it doesn’t mean anything. A thousand of your best friends are going to get to hear that song and that’s it. I always tell everyone, “Marketing, and then music, and you back all that up with talent.”
Music Madness: That’s what puts you over the top and separates you from the other million bands out there these days thanks to social media.
Scott: Totally. There are so many bands out there that are not the greatest players, don’t have the best song on the planet, but constantly are just nipping in at the charts and it’s because they’re great at marketing. They’re great at getting that song out there, or they hooked up with a label, or a pusher or whatever these people are that you have access to and they’re working that correctly.
Music Madness: Absolutely. So what attracted you to Saving Abel? How did that all come about?
Scott: I was in a band called Tantric for a number of years. We had a great relationship and made music I loved, it was awesome. We were on tour with Saving Abel, which we had, done a bunch. Tantric, we had a bus, it broke and the guys of Saving Abel said, “Hey, man, you want to ride with us?” I’m like, “Yeah,” and they said, “Well, don’t tell your band because they might get mad at us, but we got two or three extra bunks. You want to ride, it’s cool.” I go, “Yeah, man, of course,” because I am pretty calm and quiet and keep to myself, but I’ll carry a conversation if you’re ready.
We’re just hanging out, Eric, the original bass player of Saving Abel came to me, and he said, “Look man, I’m thinking about staying home. I’ve got a baby on the way, I’ve done this so long and I just think maybe it might be best if I just stay home.” I said, “Well, man, that’s a big decision. Why don’t you just think about it?” He said, “Well, you’re the guy I want. If I’m leaving, you’re the guy I want to fill my shoes.” I go, “Well, let’s just talk about this, let’s back up a notch.” Of course, I didn’t know how to take that because I didn’t know if the band knew he was thinking about leaving. We’re all riding together in this bus. We did a bunch of shows. It was a couple month tour.
At the end of the run, he and I talked really in depth and the band actually came and talked to me too and said, “If you want this gig, it’s yours. We don’t want, of course, to steal you from another band. We don’t want to be those guys, but if in any way, you would consider leaving, then that would be great.” They pretty much asked me formally and I said, “Okay, Eric, why don’t we do this. Tantric, we have two months off. Why don’t you stay home? I’ll do this run with Saving Abel and fill in for you, and then you make your decision.” I just knew in my heart, Eric was going to go, “Man, I can’t not be out there. I love my family, but I miss it already.” I just knew that’s what he was going to say, but he didn’t at the end of this tour.
Music Madness: Surprise.
Scott: He called me. He says, “Hey, man. I can’t do it. I think I’m really needed at home,” and of course we all make those decisions of balance and I respected that. I told Eric “I can’t say for sure, I’m going to take this, but I looked at our schedules. I can fill in for the next couple of months, our schedules jive that way so I could still do Tantric and Saving Abel. So I did do both a little bit. Tantric, we had just hired my good friend, Brian Bonds who was Florida Georgia Line’s guitar player and I’ve known him for years. He was so excited to come in and do a run with us and see how it goes, maybe join the band, or whatever.
We go to the first show. Brian flew out to Colorado. We rehearsed without our singer and then we flew back out to do the first show and our singer didn’t come. He had missed his flight. So I fronted the show because I was, what they call, the other singer in Tantric. I fronted the show and we had a great time. It was a sold out show in Virginia. The very next show, he missed his flight again. I started thinking and prioritizing and said, “Well, you know, I’ve got this offer on the table, I love the Saving Abel guys, they’re all boys like me, goofy and silly. But I’ve got a brotherhood here with Tantric and the music that I’ve played for so long and I love it.” Finally, we did the run with Tantric and he came, we had a great run. Brian told me he’s leaving, he said, “I can’t do this.” I said, “Okay, no problem, man.” The drummer we’d had for a number of years said he’s going to bow out too.
We had one show, which was Brat Fest, Madison, Wisconsin, biggest free music festival in the US. Tantric was playing it. So I called some of the former members, the people that played years and years and years ago, called those guys and said, “Hey, will you come out and do one show.” They’re like, “Of course. That would be great. We’d love to do it.” We didn’t rehearse or anything. We come to the show and our singer didn’t show up again. He missed his flight again. I just felt like the career didn’t feel that important to him at that moment, that maybe I just needed to look elsewhere too. So he didn’t come to that one, I fronted that show. We had 10 thousand people that were disappointed he wasn’t there, but they had a good time and were super happy that we played anyway. I was calling everybody backstage. We had a bunch of people come up and Michael Alexander who puts on that festival got up and sang with me and we did “Simple Man”.
Music Madness: Oh, very cool.
Scott: We did the Tantric songs, we broke out a couple covers and had people come up and sing with us. It was fun and I was super sick that day. Anyway, icing on the cake, I talked to Hugo about it and just said, “Look, dude, I just think I need to bow out and wish you the best. There’s no hard feelings. And, of course, we’ve been brothers for a long, long time so we continued that relationship and we tour together often and there’s no hard feelings there. A lot of Tantric fans became Saving Abel fans, which was cool for me, because I got to see a lot of my friends come back out and hang out to Saving Abel shows.
Music Madness: Very cool. In football, they always say the center is the smartest guy on the field and they really dictate how everything rolls. I’ve talked to a few bass players and you guys all seem very easy going, very creative and talented as far as you’re not just bass players. Are bass players the center of a band? No pressure (laughing).
Scott: Well, of course the singer wants to be the center of the band, that doesn’t mean he dictates anything because the singer’s singing, he can only direct so much traffic because he’s supposed to be hypnotizing the crowd with his presence. In defense of the singers, then we have our lead guitar players that get their moments of flash and they may kick the songs off. I genuinely do believe that. In studying music, you know the bass line changes the entire presence of the chorus and then the rhythm of the bass and the rhythm section. We’re leading the pack whether they know it or not. We could totally throw the show off into another world and blow everybody’s mind (laughing).
Music Madness: That’s why you guys are always smiling. It’s as if you guys know something that no one else does.
Scott: I love it. It’s kind of true. Thanks for respecting the bass players. It’s a tough life we lead out there. We don’t get to flash a whole lot. Sometimes we do, but it’s rare. We do hold the fort down, let’s say that. We hold the fort down and keep us all marching in the right direction at the correct tempo, hopefully.
Music Madness: Bass players just look like they are having a blast back there. It’s like every show I go to it’s the same thing, it’s the same look, like you guys take a class in it. It’s awesome (laughing).
Scott: I love it. One super cool thing about that is, we do have malfunctions, my wireless pack goes out or something’s going awry. Everyone on the front line will immediately just turn, which when that happens to them, I step in their place while they fix something. They go back to their amp because something went wrong and I just step up to wherever they’re at and take that spot. But I’m back here in the back, I’m up front some, but if I’m in the back and something goes wrong, you can watch all three heads just spin because we’re always holding it down, keeping the constant.
Music Madness: To funny! Saving Abel is getting ready to kick off a tour this week.
Scott: Yeah, January 10th and we’re off and on the whole year, we never stop working. We have some awesome big stuff coming up next year. There is a tour called Mudfest, which is Puddle of Mudd, Saliva, Trapped, Saving Abel and Tantric. And those will be hitting some of the bigger rooms, theaters and some of the arenas around the nation. That tour is like three months long, but it’s very sporadic, it’s off and on, we will have a week off here and there.
It’s going to be a lot of fun, because we’ve known everybody on that tour for a thousand years and it’s good for the fans that want to see us on the big stages again. It’s so much fun for us to play for a big stage. We love the small stuff too, but it’s a little more, you see our full potential because we have a stage big enough to do whatever we want to on it, full production and everything. It’s a lot of fun.
Music Madness: That is always a blast. I know you will be down in my neck of the woods, Lakeland, Florida in February.
Scott: A wild thing about that show is we are all going skydiving the day before that show. You may see some of us not there anymore, who knows (laughing).
Music Madness: Awesome. You guys will have to take some video of that.
Scott: We will. We are actually going to do some photos for our upcoming new record, which will be out next year while we’re doing that. There’s a couple of songs that fit us flying through the air. It’ll be pretty neat.
Interview by Steve Carlos