By David O’Neill

Dan Byrne, Revival Black, Steelhouse 2022Liverpool hard rockers Revival Black are just about to release their second album, ‘Under The Light’, an advance copy of which I personally have had on heavy rotation, not least in the run up to the recent Steelhouse festival, where singer Dan Byrne fronted the current incarnation of former Skin guitarist Myke Gray’s band.

So, I took the opportunity, the following afternoon, to catch up with the charismatic frontman, and of course started by asking him how he came to hook up with Gray…

It was a little while ago actually, he shared our band page for Revival Black and said he really enjoyed the vocals, so I messaged him and said thank you very much, should you ever need a support band we’d be more than happy to oblige.  Obviously at the time he was working with Kim Jennett, and I did some backing vocals on his ‘Shades of Gray’ album.

During this time he stopped working with Kim and he had some festivals booked and he asked me if Id do the honours to sing with him. At the time it was Stonedead, SOS and Planet Rockstock. He said he’d like me to sing with him but I’d have to promise I could make these festivals. I said I’ve already got tickets for all three so I’m already there if you like it or not. So if you want me there I am absolutely up for it.  This was supposed to be his farewell show but it happened to be my second show with Myke. It was an absolute treat to be here at Steelhouse.

As I said before we started, it’s always a pleasure talking to you, ‘cos I have seen you with Revival Black a few times and you’re always a pleasure to talk to whenever I have spoken to you all. I just thought I’d say I have your forthcoming album, ‘Under The Light’, to review for Über Rock … It is very different to your other music.

Well, how it came about was very different because of Covid. We wrote it all online and bysending files as opposed to being in a room together and rocking out. So the way we approached it was slightly different and we’ve tried a different attempt at songwriting, we’ve really structured the songs differently. They’re not as full frontal as the original album which was like, all hard rock with no kind of subtlety. There were dynamics but there was no change in style, whereas this has some more ballads and mid tempo songs as well as the faster stuff. We tried to advance from where we left the last single from the first album

Dave: So did you miss that dynamic creative spark from being in the same room and feeding from each other?

We eventually got around to it when we were allowed to work in our workplaces and rehearsal rooms. However, it was difficult in the first three to six months when we couldn’t do that it was different having someone send a riff over and people interpreted it differently as opposed to someone in the room telling you “This is what I have in mind”. It left things more open to interpretation. It did mean that you glued different ideas together in a different way, going “Well actually that one works with that” and we kind of pieced together a whole song in that way.

So, its released now at the end of August…

Correct, it clashes with our appearance at Stonedead Festival…

Well that’s not a bad time to have an album release is it?

It was originally meant to be one or two months ago, but when Adele and Iron Maiden decided to release their albums it meant there was a big shortage of plastic so we couldn’t produce our vinyl versions. So we had to move it with the date of the vinyl and we had to pick and choose, so we decided to go with our Friday appearance at Stonedead.

Well that’s not a bad time as I said previously. Not as long as you’ve got the stuff to sell…

Well that’s exactly it. That week beginning at Stonedead we are then doing an album launch the following day and we have several HMV instore performances that week where it will be available to buy and it all counts towards the chart positioning.

I believe you guys are also down to do the Soundbay Festival towards the end of the year I believe?

That’s correct.

Aled [Lewis] is a friend of mine and he promotes very good festivals and events and that weekend is an exceptional bill.

We have a lot of respect for Aled. We played the Patti Pavilion with Hand of Dimes and Son of Man last December. So we’ve got amazing rapport. I think he’s great and to be asked to do Soundbay was brilliant. The calibre of bands, as you mentioned, is unbelievable, so its an honour to do it.

Have you got any big tours planned for Revival Black after all this?

Not so much planned but we are aware that with a new album probably comes a tour, so we are going to get these dates and festivals that are already pencilled in completed and then coming to the end of the year we’re gonna look at going on tour, especially to places we haven’t already played that much to try and reach all those territories as well as our usual venues

As always a pleasure talking to you, I wish you all the best with the best with the album and I look forward to writing the review before long

You’re a star

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