Hey Danny, it's Andrew from Australia
Hey Andrew…. how ya doing? I wasn't sure what time you were going to call.

Yeah ( laughs ) I kinda left it a bit confused in Jill's mind there. Because it's pretty early….and I thought I better stick to the time she set up for me!
So what time is it there then…like 5 in the morning?

Yeah 5am. So how are you?
Great, fine. I saw your webpage. Looks great.

Great, so you're online then?
Yeah. Did you ever see my web page?

Look I did, I got a sampler of the album from going and visiting it, fantastic. Are you online yourself?
Oh yeah a little ego page.

It's great to be able to talk to…I have been a fan since 'Time Runs Wild'.
Is that right? That's great. There's not too many of you out there. It's nice to know it wasn't all in vain you know what I mean.

Now for a few questions about the new record, how's it going?
Oh it's going great. You know radio is looking good, we were third most added on the new single on Triple A. Hopes are high at this point.

So what tracks are you adding?
Well the first single on radio is 'Long Walk Back'

I first got a sample of that from your page…an mp3. I think it's great to see artists using them - much better than the old telephone quality.
Right yeah. Well I made the mistake when I first started experimenting of putting on the whole song on there, about 2 months before the record was due out and the record company had a shit fit. Man dumb old me! So I changed them and put up to the first chorus and that was it. Hey I thought you know, I'm not a stingy guy, let them have it.

So you are going with 'Danny Wilde and the Rembrants' this time around? Yeah right… Actually I think it's quite fitting… as the songs do sound like a mix of the two. Well I was half of the Rembrants and I think what I brought to the table really was the Rembrants sound. You know there was the real sort of 'Americana ' feel to my songs, a folky side, a rock side I was doing with my solo career I think that the two of them really melded well together. Now it's even more so, having complete autonomy. I no longer have any borders. When you have two guys writing you inevitably end up with like 25 songs for each record and only 5 or 6 of yours can get used.

So this time around was it nice to have a voice on every one?
Yeah, like the old days. You know I miss Phil, I miss his guitar playing. It just wasn't meant to last forever. Like I had hoped it would, but having said that I felt while I had invested 8 years of my life in the band there was no reason to lose at least the marquis value. The recognisability of the Rembrants. So it's kind of me with one foot out the door and we'l see what happens on the next album if this one is successful.

I heard you may just go back to the Danny Wilde tag?
Yeah well I wouldn't mind doing that actually. I feel like with the Rembrants I've kinda been there and done that and this way it's a transitional thing for me right now. Also for the fans to realise it's not gonna be that different. I felt it was a safe way…a safer step in the next direction.

And what's happened to Phil he just decided he'd had enough?
Yeah he's had it. I mean it was very road weary and he wasn't enjoying himself in the last 4 years, he was always threatening to quit and finally he just said' that's it I'm not doing it anymore'. I don't really know if he's even making music anymore. I wish him the best. I can't imagining him mot making music though but I haven't talked to him in quite a while.

what band have you got together for this album?
Well it's the same cast I've had for like the last 2 and a half years. From the touring version of the last record there's a drummer called Dorian Kroje,
and a bass player called Graham Edwards. And a new guitar player named Mark Karen. It's really guys I've played with for a long time, with the exception of Mark. Mark came in after we had already tracked the album.

You've got a big fat sound on the new album!
Thank you.
Most of it was recorded, tracked live with minimal overdubs.
We really felt that coming of a 2 year tour that we wanted to go in and capture that kind of live vibe. It's really the first time that the whole album was really tracked live, the first two albums were basically Phil and I playing to a drum machine and then we'd have Pat put on drums after the songs were basically musically done.

I'll take you back a few years if you don't mind.
The record 'The Boyfriend'…a few years ago now…still hard to find!
You know it never came out on CD. When the album came out I was on
the label Island and at that point I had moved straight from Island to Geffen. Geffen brought out my Island deal and I remember some friends of mine just had a solo album out and because they stayed on island they got a cd! So I thought shit, I should've waited a couple more weeks (laughs)!
But I have had a lot of requests on the web page, people and DJ's who were fans of the record going "God, can we ever get that on CD". You know Geffen brought out the Island stuff, so who knows maybe one day they'll re-issue it.

You had a hit straight off that album didn't you, 'Isn't It Enough'. A classic.
Yeah kinda had good luck that way. Out the door, it was a big radio hit here. Didn't sell me a lot of records but it did get me another rung up the ladder. In the sense Geffen were really interested and then the 2nd abum out had the 'Time Runs Wild' on it and that did fairly well for me.

I love that song. the 'Dream A Little Dream ' soundtrack is where I first heard you. Did the exposure help you from having that song on there?
Not really because that song had been a hit in the States a year before that soundtrack ever came out. Maybe not quite a year but it was definitely over radio wise before that soundtrack came out.

That's funny 'cause it never would have been released in Australia… so that Soundtrack would have been the first taste of your music for Australians.
How funny? It's a great big world out there and with the friends theme 'I'll Be There For You' we had been off the road for 6 months recording the new album in the Bahamas and that song had just been released on Friends and it was like No. 1 for three weeks and we had alreasy practically finished the new album so sometimes it takes some a little longer to catch on.

'Any Man's Hunger' was recorded in London, any reason for that? The producer Pat Moran, that I was really into at the time, he did some Tom Cochrane albums that I really like. He had just finished about 4 months with the guy from Foreignor, Lou Gramm and I said "look man I want you to do the record" and he said he couldn't cause he'd been away form home for so long and he lives in Wales. There's a historical studio there called 'Rockfield', like all the Foghart stuff was done there. Tonnes of great records done there in like the 60's and you know right through to the 80's they're still making great records over there. So I said 'Yeah cool, let's do it there'. So we went to Wales and tracked it at 'Rockfield' and then mixed it in London at Master Mix studios. It was a great experience for me and the band and it was great to get away from Southern California for awhile.

He's a cool producer Pat Moran.
Yeah he is.

And how about your self titled solo album with Geffen and 'Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of'.

That album was produced by the man who produced my first solo album 'The Boyfriend', Peter Coleman who was from Pat Benatar fame. And he's just a great friend of mine. We really hit it off and when it came time to make the 3rd solo album I said I wanted to work with Peter again. I think that's probably your best solo album? Do you really? Wow, that's nice to hear. You know what I'll have to listen to it.

Yeah… I just really get in to the songs on that album.
Oh that's great thank you Andrew.

And when I was courting my fiancee , 'Cut From Stone' was one of the tracks that I played her.
Yeah I though that should have been a radio hit. I was dropped from Geffen two weeks after that album hit the stores.

That quickly? That's pretty merciless!
I can remember David Geffen sitting in the office going I don't care if it takes 12 albums you're the next Bruce Sprinsteen. I'm going great I never really cared to be the next Bruce Springstten but he having said it, I'm safe here. Two weeks after that 3rd album was released, son of a bitch if I didn't get dropped.

I'd like to know how they can tell in 2 weeks if an album is going to be a hit or not?
I just think they didn't feel there was anything on it that was going to get me anywhere. It was that time of the year where they cut their losses.
I didn't think that the 'Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of' definitley not my first choice for a single…um it was odd too as it was getting a lot of radio at the time. We were opening up for Joe Cocker and we had only been on the show for 10 days and came through LA…. started off up in Washington and by the time we got to LA the gig was off. Off the label, off the tour. Yeah, but it's ok, I'm an optimist if it wasn't for that happening Phil and I wouldn's have got together.

Look, your 'The Boyfriend' album was practically the line up for the Rembrants. So what led you back to working with Phil and calling it 'The Rembrants '.
Well I had been working with Phil a long time on and off throughout the years, we had a band together in the early 80's called 'Great Buildings' out on Columbia.

Oh yeah, gee I should look that up.
Good luck finding it.

Yeah it took me about 4 years to find 'The Boyfriend' on LP!
Well this will take another 4 or 5 (laughs).
Phil was living in LA at the time. We were in the process of making our 2nd album for Columbia and once again Phil had decided he had had enough and quit. And I just said at that point fuck it and I'm just going to go and do my own solo project. Being young and stupid it took me another 5 years to get a record deal and I didn't even know I was still signed to Columbia and in 1983 I got a release letter in the mail. You know I had no management, no lawyers or anything and I wasn't really doing anything except for just concentrating on writing. I wasn't shopping it or anything. You know it's just funny how it all just worked out. And then in '85 Phil and I got back together when I was doing my solo album and he played on that as well.


Why go with 'The Rembrants' name?
We thought it was really funny. We thought it sounded sophisticated and maybe catch people's attention. There would be no confusion as to who we were as musicians. At that particular time back in '89 - '90 there were metal bands and hair bands and we wanted to completely go the opposite direction. And be a little geek band, sort of like the 70's skinny ties and all that. You know, a power pop band. One of those names out of a 100 that worked.

And you got some radio play out of that single?
'Just the Way It Is Baby'? Yeah that was a really really big hit here in the States for us. You know we sold a lot of records of that, put us on the map. And then the 2nd album came out, we had a top 30 hit with 'Johhny Have You Seen Her'.

Oh ok.
How about the next album…the self titled record. How did that go for you?
That was the last album recorded in my garage. The first album was the demo that was released as a record. The label loved the demo and wanted to master it and put it out. The 2nd album they said go ahead and do the same thing. So we recorded it in my garage, mixed at a proper studio and that was the end of those days. On the 3rd album they said we're getting a producer in, you're not producing them yourselves anymore. I guess because the 2nd album didn't do so well they felt we needed some guidance.
Which is fine, cause you know I always get my 2 cents in there anyway. I feel everything I've ever done I have co-produced.

The 3rd Rembrants album…I enjoyed that. I was in the states when the 2nd album came out and I liked that too, but I've always liked your solo stuff more than the Rembrants. However I like some of the classic simple ballads like 'Don't Hide Your Love ', also off the 1st album, there's a killer track on there called 'Show Me Your Love '. Oh yeah…that ones a classic. Yeah that's one of my favourite Rembrants songs of all time. Yeah also 'Confidential Information' That too… thank you. And then, what happened after that..well the rest is history with the TV show and all that.

Yeah I was going to try and avoid that question!
Well you know it was a double edged sword. It helped us get the bulk of our music out to people who may not have heard it or had the opportunity to hear it, but what it did in the long run was turn us in to the band who did that TV show theme.

Did it sell records for you?
Oh yeah, it sold 2 million. Yeah it did quite well. So you know if 2 million people brought it and got to hear the rest of the record that's all I really care about.

Fantastic. And I guess a benefit was a little bit of financial securtity?
Yeah… it's amazing how many people get a piece of it though.

You're the last one to get the cheque right?
What's left of it. I don't need a lot of money, I'm in to the simple things

That's cool. what's on next for you Danny?
Well, touring. We're working on, we just got a first list of dates for the States. We are headlining theatres and clubs.

Okay then Danny...Thanks again for your time.
No problem Andrew. Thanks.