Tesla’s Frank Hannon sat down with Sonic Perspectives and discussed the band’s choice to release singles in recent years rather than producing full-length albums.
“Well, the world has changed. I mean, it’s actually gone full circle,” the guitarist explained his reasoning. “Back in the ’50s, when rock and roll was first born, Hank Williams and Johnny Cash and Chuck Berry and all of them, they would always just put out singles that they recorded live at a radio station, and it wasn’t until the ’70s or the late ’60 that full-length, long LPs came into existence.”
He continued with the band’s changes: “But besides the world changing, we have changed too. We’re a lot older now and we have to tour a lot to make a living. I mean, we’re not rich. We never became millionaires. We still have to pay our bills, and so it makes more sense, the philosophy of going out on tour and writing a song and while that song is fresh, putting it out and enjoying it at the time, like we’ve been doing with ‘All About Love’ or those other ones,” the rocker said.
The band’s bassist Brian Wheat also talked about a similar issue. He discussed the importance of sharing knowledge with young musicians about various aspects of the music industry. He criticized streaming services like Spotify for their unfair payment model and pointed out that only a small number of artists, particularly pop singers, are still selling physical copies of their music.
“I mean, vinyl sales are up — yeah, great — but no one’s selling those kind of records, unless you’re Taylor Swift or Miley Cyrus or something. But a rock record selling 150,000 copies physically is miraculous. I mean, there’s maybe three artists that can do that,” he explained during a chat on the Words Of Power With Joey DeMaio podcast.
In the early stages of their career, Tesla toured with bands such as Alice Cooper, Def Leppard, and David Lee Roth. Even with their success, the ‘rock is dead’ claim could make them seem like an unpopular band. While some believe rock and roll is no longer alive, the bassist disagrees. He feels that many of the genre’s biggest artists still draw large crowds, even with the rise of other genres.
