Interview with Ajay Popoff

Rock On: Even on Lit’s earliest releases like Tripping the Light Fantastic, you were combining thrash, metal and hardcore influences. But there was high value placed on melody. Was it a conscious and deliberate part of the band's approach from the very beginning to make music that was catchy?

Ajay Popoff: Yeah; our influences stem from all over the place. Our grandfather was a jazz musician; when we'd spend weekends at our grandparents house, we were always hearing all the standards. And our dad was a deejay; he worked in pop radio for a long, long time at KIIS-FM in Los Angeles. So he was always music bringing home. And at the time, pop music wasn't necessarily what it is today. You'd hear Def Leppard, Bon Jovi Michael Jackson and Dolly Parton on the same radio station. It's the hooks that bring people in, so that's always been really important to us; pop was a big influence in our upbringing and as songwriters.

Other acts saw the success of Alice Cooper, and felt inspired to create their own stage shows. The more successful of these artists weren’t copying AC, but rather, it set them free to follow their own inspiration wherever it took them. He said, “It’s what they should have done. Twisted Sister invented their own character, Bowie invented his character. KISS certainly became four comic book characters, and great!” But aside from making great records, and sitting in prop electric chairs, what inspired Alice Cooper? Continuing, he said, “Rock and roll had nothing but heroes, and Peter Pans, but they didn’t have any Captain Hook, and I just kind of looked at it and asked, where are the villains? I would rather be a Batman villain, than Batman.”   

He’s not wrong. In the 1960’s, most bands, playing to audiences of white college, and high school kids, were putting on concerts similar to the early Beatles, and even The Rolling Stones. They’d pretty much stand there and play their music. Sure Mick Jagger was a unique presence, and guys like Paul Revere and the Raiders, and The Who, had their mod outfits, but few bands featured live performances like the stage show Alice Cooper put on nightly. One of their early influences was The Doors. Cooper said, “Jim Morrison was definitely on a dark trip. Sometimes we’d tour with them, and they’d do a song like The End, or When The Music’s Over, and every night it was different.” He explains, “Jim would go off on his poetic trips, and the band would just listen and then compliment it. I had never heard anyone do anything like that.” However, it wasn’t just Morrison dangerously crashing to the floor after throwing himself off the drum riser, or taunting the cops with profanity, a la Lenny Bruce, Cooper says, “Their music was so good, and it complimented everything he was thinking.” He’s right. To this day, despite Morrison having died in 1971, The Doors continue to sell records. The same is true with Alice Cooper.

Between 1971 and 1976, The Alice Cooper Band released seven albums that reached into Billboards top 40. Four of them entered the top 10, and in 1973, Billion Dollar Babies reached #1. The band that began as a Beatles parody, complete with wigs and suits, had become rock legends. Ironically, their album oriented rock, designed for their increasingly elaborate stage shows weren’t driven by singles. Throughout Cooper's career, as a band, and solo artist, he’s just had a handful of singles break into the top 40, and only a couple of them were top 10. It seems peculiar in an industry still largely driven by singles, Alice Cooper could have at least a dozen albums in the top 10, but have no #1 singles, and only a couple of songs still played on classic-rock stations.    

The dichotomy between huge album sales, driven by a noticeable lack of high-ranking singles seems mind blowing, until you realize the underlying secret of his success: concept albums. A concept album is essentially a collection of songs with an overarching theme, or simply tells a story. Early concept records would include The Beatles Sergeant Peppers, The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society, and The Odessey and Oracle by The Zombies. Cooper said, “I think everything after Love It To Death, and Killer, became conceptual. Schools Out was a concept, Billion Dollar Babies was a concept, Nightmare of course, Goes To Hell, they all have story lines.” Those storylines created the basis of his live act, which became the band’s generally accepted claim to fame.

As the timed roll-out of Tedeschi Trucks Band’s new music begins, the band is embarking on its 2022 Wheels of Soul Tour, taking to the stage with Los Lobos and Gabe Dixon. And now is an ideal time to take a look back at the creative musical journey – so far – of the band’s co-leader, Susan Tedeschi.

Born in Boston and raised in nearby Norwell, Massachusetts, Tedeschi grew up listening to her father’s record collection, and absorbing some of his musical tastes. Tedeschi’s father frequented the region’s folk clubs, and those clubs took a wide and eclectic approach to booking artists. “You could see Reverend Gary Davis, Taj Mahal and Dave Van Ronk all in the same night,” she says.

He also followed the music and career of artists as varied as The Staple Singers and Joan Baez, and he enjoyed the Beatles ‘White Album.’ “And he went to see Bob Dylan at the Newport Folk Festival the year he ‘went electric,’” Tedeschi says. Her father sat under a weeping willow tree with Mississippi John Hurt for an hour and a half. The blues legend “had his guitar out, playing songs and talking to my dad,” she says.

All of that made an on young Susan Tedeschi. “As far back as I can remember,” she says, “I was listening to [music] that my parents had.”

Thus inspired, she knew she wanted to pursue music, and began singing when very young. “I was doing plays and musical theater starting at age six, and I auditioned for Broadway when I was 10,” she says. “I met Johnny Cash; I had a lot of experiences around that age that helped shape what I do to this day.”

Tedeschi developed a finely-tuned pop sensibility. She and her childhood friends bonded over a shared appreciation for the Bee Gees, Madonna, Run-D.M.C and Beastie Boys. “I remember going to a yard sale and buying [The Allman Brothers’ 1973 album] Brothers and Sisters and The Clash,” she recalls. And she was a fan of assorted Boston-based acts like the J. Geils Band, Aerosmith and the Cars.

By age 12, Tedeschi was lead singer in a local band. “We didn’t really have a name,” she says with a laugh. “We did everything from Beatles covers to Rush to Bon Jovi to Boston.” She says that group was her first real attempt at going professional. “We would play private parties and yacht clubs for $50 here and there,” she says. “It was a good experience at getting out in front of people and seeing what worked and didn’t work.” That group would be the first in a succession of bands for Tedeschi.

It wasn’t until college that she gained a fuller appreciation for the blues. “And it wasn't until I graduated from college that I figured out that there were all these other artists that I didn't know about,” she admits. “I didn't know about Koko Taylor and Big Mama Thornton.” But she learned, making up for lost time. And Tedeschi continued to expand her musical horizons. “I learned about gospel artists like Mahalia Jackson,” she says.

Tedeschi’s gospel journey started when she was a student at Berklee. “I began part of the gospel choir as a sophomore,” she says. Being a white girl from Massachusetts, it was really cool getting to go sing in [African American] churches.'' Her experiences included singing with the James Cleveland mass choir “It was quite an amazing education,” Tedeschi says. “I was blown away by how the music could make you feel so spiritually moved. I was like, ‘Shoot! If this was the choir at my church, I would've gone to church every day!’”