Derek Davis of Babylon A.D. The ClassicRockHistory.com Interview

Feature Photo: courtesy of Brandvold Media/Glenn Herring

Hailing from the Bay Area – an area more known for thrash than hair metal – Babylon A.D. proved an outlier to the infamous Sunset Strip scene.

While they might have been as debauched and outlandish as many of their lipstick-caked counterparts out in L.A., Babylon A.D. provided an additional layer to the raucous party scene that was rock and metal music in the late ’80s. While it was something of a hit on the backside of “Bang Go The Bells” and “Hammer Swings Down, Babylon A.D.’s 1989 self-titled record was a latecomer to a soon-to-be-dying scene.

Indeed, success was fleeting for Derek Davis (vocals), Dan De La Rosa (guitars), Ron Freschi (guitars), Robb Reid (bass), and Jamey Pacheco (drums), and by the time 1992’s Nothing Sacred was released, grunge had seen to it that the party was over. Some two years later, in 1994, Babylon A.D. called it a day, only to return at the turn of the century with 2000’s American Blitzkrieg, running strong ever since.

These days, Babylon A.D. is basking in the renewed vigor that 2017’s Revelation Highway allowed them and is preparing to unleash its latest record, Live Lighting. The record will, of course, include the classic ’80s staples that fans have come to know and expect. But keep a look out for modern era and band favorites, too, when the record drops on March 17th on Perris Records.

Babylon A.D.’s voicebox, Derek Davis, dialed in with ClassicRockHistory.com to give the rundown on Live Lightning, recount the band’s history, as well as give an update on what’s next.

Tell me about Live Lightning.

This album has a high level of energy that seeps through the tracks. You can feel the electricity between the band and the fans. It just really captures the way we play live in the performances. The angst and the power shine.

What songs do you most enjoy playing live?

There are fourteen tracks on the album, and I personally like some of the lesser-known songs like “Sinking In The Sand” from our American Blitzkrieg album, the hits like “Hammer Swings Down,” “Kid Goes Wild,” and “Bang Go The Bells.” Of course, we need to play those; they’re fun too. I think we picked the best songs we do.

How do you build a setlist?

When building a set list, you need to imagine what songs follow in order to keep the flow and people engaged, and I believe we have always been a very good live band that struts their mojo to the max!

Who were some of your early influences which first shaped your style?

My early influences as a singer are Steven Tyler, Sammy Hagar, John Waite, and a lot of old soul singers like Bobby Womack, James Brown, etc. My songwriting is influenced by so many different styles. But in Babylon A.D., I pretty much stick to ’70s hard rock; my favorite bands are mostly from that era because of the originality of the different bands of the times. Bands like UFO, Montrose, Aerosmith, etc.

Hailing from the Bay Area, what were some of your early gigs?

I’ve played every dump bar, backyard party, Hells Angle club gig, big venue, little venue, and pretty much every place that has ever been in the Bay Area. When you’re just starting out, you play anywhere and everywhere you can and learn along the way what works and what doesn’t.

Can you recount the formation of Babylon A.D.?

That could take all day, but in a nutshell, I got a call from Jamey [Pacheco], the drummer, who was jamming with John Mathews at a big studio in Fremont. I was in a very good band at the time, but he was telling me I had to check the two of them out and that they had some really cool music but no vocalist. I went and checked them out, and sure enough, they had the goods. Within a week, we got Robb [Reid], the bass player, then Ron [Freschi], our other guitar player, and we set our sites on conquering the bay area music scene.

The Bay Area is a ways away from the Sunset Strip. Was that a hindrance?

At first, no. But after about a year and a half of playing every venue in the Bay Area, we realized if we were gonna get more traction, we needed to get to L.A., and that’s what we did.

What do you recall regarding Babylon A.D.’s first gig?

I really don’t remember, but we started doing a lot of studio parties, maybe two or three a month. Over time, they became massive raging parties everyone came to, and that’s how we started getting so well known. Then we started playing places like The Stone, The Omni, The Keystones, and Niles Station in Fremont soon became our home. We played there once a month, and it always sold out.

It wasn’t long before Babylon A.D. garnered major label attention from Arista Records. What was their courtship like?

Our manager Jay Malla played our demo tape and a homemade video we had made to some labels. RCA offered us a demo deal for $15,000, but Arista’s A&R guy Randy Gerston said he thought if we waited a little longer, Clive Davis might sign us to a full album deal.

So we kept playing and writing for about another six months before Clive said, “Okay, I think they got it; now let me see the boys.” He came to L.A., and we played a show at SIR studios. When we were done, he jumped off the couch and said, “Welcome to the family, boys.” I’ll never forget that.

I was kinda shocked because I didn’t think we did that great. John had broken a string on the second song but kept playing, and we just acted like we were in front of a thousand people when really it was just Clive, the A&R guy from the West Coast, two suits from the East Coast, and our manager there. They were all sitting on a big couch about ten feet away, and we were blasting their ears in. It was too funny [Laughs].

Babylon A.D. recorded its self-titled record in 1989. What are your memories?

We had about twenty songs written, and I wrote a few more with Jack Ponti, like “Hammer Swings Down,” “Desperate,” and a couple more, so we had more than enough songs to choose from before we started pre-production. But man, it was a whirlwind, a circus ride to our dreams, and a crash that would someday surely come.

You see, where we come from, we drink, fight, fu*k and destroy just about everything all the time at any time. The party mode was always on ten when we weren’t playing. But at the same time, we needed discipline, which we really did not have. It was like handing a million dollars to some drunk on the street and saying don’t spend it on any booze. But we could not help ourselves; it was pure mayhem for the first year of making the record.

The producer Simon Hanhart almost quit because he said we could not be controlled and we were going through our studio time either fu*ked up or hung over. I mean, we lived right off the sunset strip in Hollywood, so every night was another break from the reality of what we were supposed to do, which was to make a killer record, and sometimes we just lost sight of that because of our personalities were on eleven all the time.

But somehow, we managed to pull it off, and by the time we started making our second album [Nothing Sacred], we were much more professional, especially while working with the legendary Tom Werman.

“Bang Go The Bells” is an enduring classic. Break it down for me.

That song was written in our apartment at the infamous Saint James apartment building when we first arrived in Hollywood. All five of us lived there, plus two of our road crew, so it was seven guys crammed in a one-bedroom flat.

I was in one of the bedrooms where I had a 4-track recorder set up, writing tunes, and Ron was in the living room just jamming, and I heard him doing the opening riff to the song. I yelled to him, “Hey, what the fu*k is that riff your playing?” Ron said, “I’m just making it up!”

So, I told him, “Come in the bedroom and let’s make that into a song and record it.” I made up the lyrics and melody as he was playing, and we laid it down with just a drum machine and guitar with my vocals. We showed it to the guys when they came home, and we went to practice the next day and got it locked in with a few improvements. I guess the record company really liked it…

The Live At The Roxy EP from 1991 is seldom mentioned. What do you recall regarding the performance? How do you compare this Live Lightning to that EP?

Well, that was just a fluke. Our producer Simon [Hanhart] came that night of the show with a mobile recording unit, and it was set up at the back door of the Roxie, and he recorded the show. Then our manager said we should put this out as a teaser because we were in between records, writing songs for the Nothing Sacred album, and it just seemed we needed something to keep our momentum alive. This new record is more planned out, so that alone is a difference [Laughs].

How big of an impact did grunge have on the fortunes of Nothing Sacred?

Grunge killed us and every band like us. It put the nail in the coffin, so to speak. I remember we were almost finished recording the Nothing Sacred tracks, and I was watching MTV in a room at the studio when Nirvana first broke, and that video was awesome. But at the time, I just thought they were another cool rock band.

It wasn’t until we were on the road supporting the new record a few months later that I heard the term “hair band;’ I didn’t know what the fu*k people were talking about. I mean, Nirvana’s hair was just as long as ours, so I really didn’t get it. When you’re on the road, you’re in a bubble, so while the outside world is changing, you don’t know what’s going on.

We were in play/party – play/ party every single night. We were oblivious that the music scene was changing overnight.

What led to the end of Babylon A.D’s first chapter in 1994?

A lawsuit by our accountant, our record company dropped us, my publishing company dropped me, and everyone hated “hair bands.” t was like a curse. So, we were like, “What the fu*k is the point? Let’s go back home and try and be good citizens, be normal, get real jobs, get married, and have kids.” It was totally boring shit to us at that time, but we were burned out by the business of music. But we had a good run from ’87 to ’94; it was a wild, once-in-a-lifetime joy ride.

How did you ride out the ’90s leading up to the reformation of Babylon A.D.?

I kept writing, and I built a recording studio at my house and wrote a lot of different types of songs. I got into blues, soul, pop, industrial, and acoustic tunes. I was just experimenting with music I had never played before, and the rest of the guys all took jobs, got married, and had kids.

Tell me about Babylon A.D.’s 2000 combat record American Blitzkrieg.

Well, over a few years, Danny [De La Rosa] and I started writing some songs together along with Jamey’s brother Eric. We started thinking about just doing what we love, so we started rehearsing. Ron came up with a few ideas, and pretty soon, we had enough material to make a record ourselves. So, we recorded at my studio and put it out on our own label Apocalypse Records, and found distribution through Perris Records. We played some really fun shows and had a great time.

Revelation Highway was released in 2017. How did the recording process differ from past recordings?

That was once again done at my studio. We had mostly all the tracks done, and Frontiers Records somehow heard through the grapevine that we were making a new record. So, I sent them a few tracks, and they liked what they heard and signed us. And we had some really great tracks on it. We did videos for “One Million Miles,” “Crash And Burn,” and “Saturday Night.” I really dig that album, and these songs are included on the new Live Lightning album as well.

What’s next for Babylon A.D.? Is there a new studio record in the works?

Our new live album, Live Lightning, is out on March 17th. We are booking shows and some mini-tours across the States. We are also in pre-production writing mode and already have about seven or eight really killer songs that we are working on. We plan to release a new album early next year in 2024. We’re gonna keep performing and drive this thing of ours for as long as we can.

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