Frank Stallone interview, July 2006
By Kenneth Bremer.
Grammy and Golden Globe nominated artist Frank Stallone has been everything from a street singer, to a rock singer, to a big band singer. Who has composed & published more than 200 of his own songs. He currently reissued his debut album from 1983 and this has been great news for many west coast music fans. Frank took a moment to talk with Blue Desert about his music.
Many west coast music fans knows your self titled album that were released on Polydor records in 1983. This album has become some kind of a masterpiece for man fans and has been extreme difficult to get on CD. Did you know about this?
As I have been looking on Ebay I have been amazed at the price’s sometimes close to $200.00 US, It’s very flattering.
You have now released this album on the Zimba Records label and people can easily buy it online at CDBaby and other sites. What made you do this? Did you have many people telling you to do that?
No I just decided to re release it because I had a lot of hopes for my first solo album I had waited almost 20 year to have the chance to do it and I think it’s a real good album for it’s time of the mid 80’s. So I remastered it and all the artwork and everything is the same. And I wanted people to have access to it. One is a collectors piece and this album.
How is it to have an album that came out in 1983, quickly forgotten by the label and now more that 20 years after still having a big interest from people around the world.
I must say I really did and maybe hoped I would sell a few, I can’t keep them in stock I mean everyday I’m selling and selling and mostly from Europe and tons in Japan. It makes me feel great, who know I could be re discovered. (ha ha)
You gathered many great musicians to be a part of the album, did you choose the musicians by yourself or had you worked with some of them on other projects?
Most of the players on the album were my real band, Scott Shelly, Vince Di Cola, Paul Marar and George Perilli, the rest were top session guys we had known and admired.
Beside the music you have been writing to your solo albums, you have also had many songs that were made for different films, such as: Staying Alive, the Rocky movies, Over the Top, Rambo and others. Did you write the songs especially for the current movie you needed to write for, or was it songs that you had that were chosen to the movie?
I mostly wrote for the specific film I might have 3 songs in the new Rocky that would be so awesome because I was there in the beginning. They might start the film with my song Take You Back from the first Rocky. Very exciting.
No doubt that many people knows your brother the actor Sylvester Stallone, did he have any influence on your music career, many times families can be an inspiration when you write music, so did he have any inspiration on you?
I started music before he was really into the acting thing , it just was something I was born to do and I thank God everyday.
You have released several albums over the years, and now most of them can be bought easily thru CDBaby.com and other places. Has the internet made it easier for selling music for an artists like you, now were it is more easy to buy your material online?
I have eight albums on CD BABY it was the best thing I ever did I have sold more in the 3 months on CD BABY than I have on Amazon in 7 years, don’t get me wrong I like Amazon but this is the real deal. I will be releasing my first ever album Valentine my group from 1976 the first time in almost 30 years a real neat album. COMING SOON
With the reissue of your 1983 album, and with the interest from many fans, can this give you an inspiration to bring out an album again gathering many musicians from the west coast music world?
I have done a lot of albums since that album , but yes I ‘m very inspired I’m putting a new band together as we speak I’m jazzed.
Will there any plans for you coming to Europe or Japan in the future on a tour, so people can get the possibility of seeing you live?
I would like nothing better Europe is something I never really got a big chance at, but when I did go over it was to push the CD and sing to tracks not with a live band. I would like the people to really see me sing live and play guitar.
Good luck in the future with your music projects.
Thank you Ken it has bee my pleasure, thanks for the kind words. Peace Frank
More information about Frank Stallone releases here.
Also you can read more Frank Stallone at his official website.