Not Today. An Interview With Jason Lollio of Pistol Day Parade

Detroit, Rock City. We’ve all heard that nickname. (Thanks KISS) A blue collar working class city that’s forged automobiles and rock and roll stars for decades. Pistol Day Parade is an Unsung Artist from the Motor City that is looking to make their mark, just like those classic artists before them. After signing on with Goomba Music, the band is poised to take the road with hopes of taking America by storm. Their blue collar rock is clearly evident and their hard work has finally come to fruition on their new release Burn.

Listen to the entire Jason Lollio interview below:
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Today we’re joined by Jason Lollio from the band Pistol Day Parade. Jason is the bassist in the band. First off, thanks for joining me today and welcome to the the Unsung Melody family.

Thanks for having me.

For a lot of people, this will be an introduction to the band. So let’s get a little history lesson going here. I’m aware the band is from Michigan, but tell me a bit about where you met, formed and the journey to this point.

The band formed in 2009. We went through a couple different drummers. We just recently, in the past year, picked up an 18-year old kid that’s a virtuoso. We’ve been working on our album for literally the last three years. We originally recorded an EP down in Cleveland, OH with Mike Brown. We had a song that, kind of went on the radio off of that EP, Rockstar’s Girlfriend. It broke the Billboard Top 40 and we were unsigned. That opened up a lot of doors for the band and we ended up hooking up with some awesome producers here in the Detroit area and spent three years on this album. We can’t even handle what’s going on right now. Things are happening faster than what we can keep up with. So, it’s a good thing.

How was your record release party?

It was great. The band, we’re getting ready to hit the road. We’re hitting the road on a high note. We played Friday and Saturday night in the Detroit area. We had a release on the East side and the West side of Detroit. It went great. The response was great and we played really good. That was the most important thing for us. We’re excited to take this on the road now and show the world.

You just released your debut album, Burn. What does the title of the record mean to you guys?

The theme, kind of for the album is about relationships. A lot of the songs have to do with relationships. Burn was just kind of about being burned in a relationship. That’s where the concept came from. I wasn’t really a big fan of it at first, then I found out that Deep Purple had an album called Burn. We’d already submitted it to the label and to our distribution with eOne, so they said we can’t change it. In the end though, the way the artwork came out, I think it’s a perfect fit now.

That’s a sexy young lady you guys have on the cover there. Is she a friend of the bands?

You now what, I’ve never met her, but I’d like to. The guy at our record label that does all of our artwork and takes a lot of our photos, he knew the girl and he brought her in for a private session. I wish I could’ve been there, but unfortunately they didn’t invite me.

There’s always next time. (laughter) Not Today is the first single off of Burn. It was recently featured on Nikki Sixx’s radio show and is garnering some pretty good attention for the band. Tell me a bit about the song and video, as well as how it’s doing for you.

The cool thing about this song, is our producer is Tim Patalan, he’s the bass player in the Detroit band Sponge. Vinnie, the lead singer of Sponge, actually wrote the drum line to that song, right before we picked up our 18-year old drummer. So Vinnie was writing some of the drum tracks on the album, which Jason, our drummer, ended up re-recording all of the tracks. He’s on the whole album. Vinnie actually wrote the drum line for that song. We wanted to keep it, we wanted to keep him, because it was a huge thank you to him and what he did with the song, took it to a whole other level. Nikki Sixx ended up adding it. That’s the second song that Nikki’s wound up putting on his countdown show, which is nationally syndicated and I’m trying to make him my best friend right now.

(laughter) That’d be a good guy to have as a friend I do believe. Where I Lay is a track I want to get a little insight to. For me, that’s the song that I personally feel will connect with the most people. Tell me about the process of writing that song.

That was always one of my favorite songs. It still is one of my favorite songs on the album. It was the most difficult to write actually. We ended up going through about four or five different versions of that song, trying to find the right tempo. The right arrangement and it always seemed like we were missing it. We just kept working it. That’s a song that is the product of a lot of hard work. It’s not a song like Rockstar’s Girlfriend, that was a song that we wrote in 10 minutes. Where I Lay was one of those songs, where we really felt the magic in it, but we weren’t feeling like we captured it. Finally, after many versions, I think we captured it. I think a lot of people are digging that track.

You guys are signed to Goomba Music. What was the deciding factor in signing on with those guys?

They gave us the fairest contract of anybody out of all the contracts we were offered. We were actually thrown a few other contracts that were just kind of ridiculous. Obviously, they want to own everything and that’s kind of how you’ve got to get your foot in the game sometimes, but these guys gave us one of the fairest contracts that I think I’ve ever seen in the music industry. We also got to own our masters. That was a big deciding factor for us. They’ve been nothing but great. They’re investing a ton of money behind the band. They’ve been so supportive of us and it’s just a really good fit. So, it was kind of a no-brainer.

I don’t really see any tour dates listed, is there something in the works that we can discuss or what’s the plan at the moment?

We’re playing the Contraband Festival out in Las Vegas on October 17th. That’s a festival with all the rock radio program directors from all across the US. There’s only a handful of bands that get chosen to play it every year and we were chosen to play it. It’s a big opportunity to meet a lot of people. A lot of times you’ve got to go to each city and go to the radio stations and meet these people. Now we get to meet them all in one place, which is really nice. Hopefully we can just keep picking up more radio stations, that’s the place where we can do it. We’re going to route out there and route back. We’re heading out around October 11th or October 12th. Then we’ll be back towards the beginning of November.

Alright, I always end things on a random question. With the Transformers movies having a ton of success, I thought I’d go there. I’ll give you an example to begin with. My son has a lot of gas and loves cheese. So I’d make him a milk truck and call him Odorous Maximous. Pick a band member and tell us what vehicle would best describe them and what their name would be?

I’d pick on my 18-year old drummer, since he’s the newest member of the band. I don’t know what those little electronic cars are. What are those?

Like a Smart Car?

Yeah, one of those little ones. A Vespa. No, it’s not a Vespa. (laughter) He’s going to kill me when he hears this. Oh my gosh! I would make him a little smart car. As far as a name goes, oh my gosh, this is just ridiculous. I don’t even know. I don’t even watch Transformers, so I don’t even know where to go with a name on that. I would just stick with the little smart car with him. We could just call him Jason. I have no clue what even a Transformer’s name is.

That’s fair enough. Thanks so much for being good sports. The site and myself wish you all the best and hopefully we’ll see you on the road soon.

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Preview or purchase Burn below:

Pistol Day Parade – Not Today: