RACHEL BOLAN Says SKID ROW 'Never' Uses Pre-Recorded Tracks During Live Performances: 'We'd Rather Sing A Bad Note'

SKID ROW bassist Rachel Bolan has weighed in on bands who rely heavily on pre-recorded tracks during their live performances.

In recent years, more and more artists have been given a pass for relying on pre-recorded tracks, drum triggers and other assorted technology that makes concerts more synthetic but also more consistent. For better or worse, pre-recorded tracks are becoming increasingly common for touring artists of all levels and genres and they're not just used in pop music — many rock artists utilize playback tracks to varying degrees.

Speaking to The Rock Experience With Mike Brunn about some rock acts' reliance on pre-recorded tracks, Rachel said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "We don't use 'em — SKID ROW doesn't use 'em. We never have. We'd rather sing a bad note. That's just us.

"If a band goes out and they need it… You know there's not an orchestra playing while KISS is doing 'Beth'; there never has been," he continued. "In [QUEEN's] 'Bohemian Rhapsody', that whole symphonic part, they walk offstage. No one's ever had a problem with it. Bands that enhance with… You have certain drum tracks — you're not gonna bring out another drummer if it's a different beat to a song, or just different sounds and everything. Who cares, man? Obviously, you're not gonna load up another bus full of musicians to come out and play one song. 'Oh, we need that violin with the timpani drum.' It's, like, no.

"I don't really care," Bolan added. "What I don't like is when I go to see a band and it's just so damn obvious they're either no singing, not playing, or there's just so much stuff or [they're] trying to fill it in, like more guitars. If it's another guitar, just get another guitar player. But if it's a whole bunch of stuff and basically a crowd is going and watching people move to listening to the record, that's when it starts to bother me. I just tend not to go see bands like that because it's just not my thing.

"SKID ROW, we never use tracks, Rachel repeated. "Well, for anyone that's gonna be technical, before 'I Remember You', we do run the sound of thunder in the beginning. It's not really thunder… But that's as far as it goes with us.

"We were doing the song 'Tear It Down' off the new record, and there's a lot of backing vocals on that that we tracked — gang vocals. And when we were doing 'em live, it didn't sound like enough. So we have two guys on our road crew that sing really, really good and are really good musicians, so we put them on the side of the stage with the mic, made no bones about it and they helped us with the gang vocals and the singing.

"For SKID ROW, we wanna give the best experience a fan can have within what we can do without relying on stuff like that," Rachel added. "But if you use it and you need it, I don't care. Do it. I'm not gonna hate a guy for doing it.

"It's the entertainment business. That's what we do. It's the entertainment business."

In March 2020, SHINEDOWN guitarist Zach Myers said that "90 percent" of rock artists use at least some pre-recorded tracks during their live performances. He told Rock Feed: "It bothers me that it bothers people. I'm, like, 'Why does this bother you?' It's the way it is. People have been doing this since the '80s. And we want the sound to be the best it can be. Could we go up there, just the four of us, and put on the best rock show ever? Of course. But that's not how we wanna do it."

Former SKID ROW singer Sebastian Bach has previously said that he is "one of the last people" who are still not using pre-recorded tracks at their live shows. "I don't know how much longer I can say to you that I don't use tapes onstage, because I don't, and I never have," he told Consequence Of Sound. "And I still don't. When I have opening bands, and they're using tapes, and then I come out and I don't use tapes… sometimes, it makes me feel stupid, because I'm like, 'What am I doing, when all these kids half my age can come onstage and do all of my moves, but they don't have to warm up for an hour before the show, or weeks, before the first show?' Sometimes, I'm like, 'Why do I even bother, if the public is so used to this other way?' It's becoming very rare to come see a good band that's actually a real band — that's not miming or doing silly moves while a tape is running. It just becomes more rare as the years go on."

In 2019, IRON MAIDEN guitarist Adrian Smith said that he doesn't "agree" with certain rock artists relying on pre-recorded tracks during their live performances. "I tell you what, I see it with a lot of younger bands, and I don't think it's a good thing at all," he told the New York Post. "I mean, the music is getting too technical now. You have computerized recording systems, which we use, but I think we use them more for convenience than because we need to. We've toured with a couple bands that use tapes — it's not real. You're supposed to play live; it should be live. I don't agree with using tapes … I think it's a real shame."

One musician who has been open about his band's used of taped vocals during live performances is MÖTLEY CRÜE bassist Nikki Sixx, who said: "We've used technology since '87." He added the group employed "sequencers, sub tones, background vox tracks, plus background singers and us. [MÖTLEY CRÜE also taped] stuff we can't tour with, like cello parts in ballads, etc.... We love it and don't hide it. It's a great tool to fill out the sound."

In a 2014 interview, MÖTLEY CRÜE guitarist Mick Mars admitted that he wasn't comfortable with the fact that his band used pre-recorded backing vocals in its live shows, claiming that he preferred to watch groups whose performances are delivered entirely live. "I don't like it," he said. "I think a band like ours… I have to say '60s bands were my favorite — '60s and '70s bands — because they were real, like, three-piece bands or four-piece bands, and they just got up there and kicked it up. Made a mistake? So what? Sounded a little bit empty here or there? So what? It's the bigness and the rawness and the people that developed and wrote the songs and made them and presented them. To me, that's what I really like. I mean, I could put on a MÖTLEY CD and play with it all day long. I don't wanna do that."

KISS lead singer Paul Stanley, who has been struggling to hit the high notes in many of the band's classic songs for a number of years, has been accused of singing to a backing tape on KISS's ongoing "End Of The Road" tour.

Back in 2015, KISS bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons slammed bands who used backing tapes for not being honest enough to include that fact on their concert tickets.

"I have a problem when you charge $100 to see a live show and the artist uses backing tracks," Simmons said. "It's like the ingredients in food. If the first ingredient on the label is sugar, that's at least honest. It should be on every ticket — you're paying $100, 30 to 50 percent of the show is [on] backing tracks and they'll sing sometimes, sometimes they'll lip sync. At least be honest. It's not about backing tracks, it's about dishonesty.

"There's nobody with a synthesizer on our stage, there's no samples on the drums, there's nothing," Gene continued. "There's very few bands who do that now — AC/DC, METALLICA, us. I can't even say that about U2 or THE [ROLLING] STONES. There's very few bands who don't use [backing] tracks."