If you like your Melodic Rock with a Mid-80’s arena slant, (and there’s a lot of us that do), then Outloud could be the band for you. Featuring the extraordinary talents of ex-Talon vocalist Chandler Mogel, and Firewind duo of guitarist/keyboardist Bob Katsionis and drummer Mark Cross, Outloud’s self-titled debut album is attracting rave reviews, and is destined to be in many people’s Top 5 CD’s of the year. Ant Heeks got in touch with Chandler Mogel to find out more.

Congratulations on the new Outloud CD, you must be absolutely delighted with the response so far?

Yes we are quite delighted. Support has been through the roof all around: from fans, media and Frontiers. We couldn’t be happier with how everything is going!

How did Outloud form, and what attracted you to the band?

Well, it originally started with Tony Kash taking guitar lessons from Bob Katsionis. Bob was impressed with Tony’s skill and challenged him to bring some riffs to mess around with. He did just that and they ended up recording them, and before their ears they were turning into decent songs. They kept this process up and before too long had about a dozen songs. They exceeded their expectations and they decided that they would need a singer to do the songs justice. That’s where I came in - as I had been talking with Bob online and when Firewind came to America I met up with him at a show here in NYC and he filled me in on the project. He sent me a demo to record to and I did just that, and they liked what I brought to the table so they flew me to Athens. That was the beginning.

After you had recorded the original demos a computer problem caused you to lose all the recordings, resulting in you having to re-do everything from scratch, but ultimately led to Outloud becoming a full band rather than a studio project. Do you think this was really a blessing in disguise for the band?

Without a doubt. After this happened we were quite discouraged, but when I returned to Greece last year and we were all in the studio together as a band, we knew that we had something special. After we re-recorded it had come out so much better and we all realized then and there what a blessing that computer crash was!

You have all been involved in bands from the heavier end of the rock spectrum, but Outloud are more melodic hard rock. Is this a reflection of how the rock scene is drifting back towards the good-time Rock’n’Roll style? And are there any bands in particular that influenced your sound?

Outloud is just what it came to be, with all of our influences uniting, I guess you could say. No particular bands, no. Tony is an 80’s hard rock guy at heart, so the bulk of the sound comes from his writing. Bob’s style has an edge to it and he brings that with him as reflected on the record. It wasn’t really planned to be an 80’s record, that’s just how it turned out!

As you are all based in different parts of the world (U.S.A., Greece, U.K.), and are all involved with other bands, how did you go about recording the album?

Good question. Most was done when Bob and Mark were off tour from Firewind, and I was able to slip over for about a week at a time. All the other guys live in Athens so they could get together pretty easily to fine tune their parts. But last year, when all of us were together in the studio it went very smoothly and quickly.

And by the same token, will you be able to do any gigs to promote the album? And if so, will you be coming to the U.K.?

We would love to come there Anthony, and in due time we will. We have some shows in the works in Greece and Germany for later in the year to start. Keep your fingers crossed for a tour next year, amidst working on our second record!

What was it like working with Tommy Hansen, and how did you get him involved with Outloud?

Tony Harnell put me in touch with him. We all thought he would really nail our sound, which he did with flying colors. It took him a very short amount of time to mix our record; he just got it right from the get-go. He was incredible and knew exactly what we were looking for.

The album is self-titled, but the cover has the slogan ‘We’ll rock you to hell and back again’ and this also appears on the display on my CD player. Was this originally intended to be the album title?

Oh, I didn’t know about that! Well many people think it’s the title but it’s not. Bob just thought it would look cool with the artwork, as it’s a lyric from the song Outloud! and it encompasses the vibe of the album. We never intended it to be the title though.

You have made a video for the track ‘We Run’. It looks like you had a lot of fun making it - particularly Mark Cross!

We sure did, we were all giving it our after-midnight crazyness, as we wrapped the shoot at about 8am. Mark had his “juice” to keep him going and the rest of us had the girls. Haha, it was really fun and we were really happy with how it turned out - there was so much great footage, the problem was deciding what to use and what not to. Bob spent days going through it!

You are already well known to most Fireworks readers for your work with Talon on the fantastic ‘Fallen Angels’ CD, and your stunning opening set at last year’s Firefest, but I understand you will no longer be working with Talon. What prompted this decision?

Thanks Anthony. That is true, I’m no longer a part of Talon, but it was for the best as I got very busy with Outloud at the time and the guys in Talon wanted to go in a slightly different direction musically. So we all agreed it was for the best that we part ways. We had some great times in L.A., at Firefest and in making Fallen Angels! I wish them the best moving forward and I’m looking forward to hearing what they’ve been working on.

You were only able to contribute lyrics to two songs with Talon, but with Outloud you contributed to all but three songs, including two beautiful ballads. What inspires your lyrics?

Thanks for the compliment on the ballads, Anthony. Well, it’s not common for me to write about this sort of thing but these particular ballads were inspired by my ex-girlfriend as I was going through a pretty bad break-up at the time. As far as the rest of the stuff it’s just good time rock and roll, some of the tunes Tony had the main idea/melody and I added to/expanded upon it and they turned out that way. Some others I wrote the verses and he wrote the choruses. Usually I’m inspired by real life, real events. That is where I find the most fodder for my lyrics.

You have a very powerful voice with a great range. Did you always want to be a singer, or did you discover your talent by accident?

Kinda by accident I guess you could say! I played piano and keyboards a little since I was younger, but it wasn’t until 2002 that I grabbed a mic in my buddy’s basement and belted out a Judas Priest song, and then I was hooked! I was always into music though; I have an extremely large CD collection. I just figured it was time to see music from a different point of view!

You have been having vocal training from Tony Harnell (TNT, Westworld, Starbreaker). How did this come about, and is he an influence on your style?

He is one of my biggest influences as he has been my teacher since 2003. I was a fan, and one day I looked on his website and saw he was offering lessons in NYC - I lived in Pennsylvania at the time, about two and a half hours away. I decided I was just going to go for it, so I e-mailed him and we set it up. I commuted up to NYC every weekend for my lessons with Tony before ultimately moving here in 2006.

You also work with other bands (Dangered Ace, Until Destiny). Can you tell us any more about these bands, and any other projects you are involved in?

Until Destiny is a heavy/power metal band that I play with in the NYC area. It features John Macaluso (TNT, Riot, Yngwie) and Joey Bones (Chris Caffery Band). I haven’t done much with Until Destiny as of late as Robert, the guitar player, has been out on the road with Doro and I have been busy with Outloud. With Dangered Ace we are almost finished with our debut album which should turn some heads. Aside from that I’m also working on some tracks with producer Stephen DeAcutis (Arcara, Prophet, Corey Glover, TTQuick) which I’m really excited about.

Everything about Outloud’s album is unashamedly ‘80’s influenced, the Stadium Rock songs, the storming production - even the cover! Can you explain what is so appealing about the music from the era that we all know and love?

I guess we tend to drift back there since we all do love metal, and that was a time for prominence for that style of music. But it’s coming back - since there hasn’t really been a new “style” associated with the current decade (00’s) everyone has been going to past decades to find the best stuff there and taking their music on a trip to those times. There is so much good music out there not only from the 80’s, but from all of them. But hopefully we will see a renaissance soon, as creativity must ultimately go forward...

Thanks for your time Chandler, and good luck with Outloud! Have you any message for Fireworks readers?

My pleasure. Thank you Anthony. And thank you all for your interest in Outloud, we’ll see all of you very soon! Stay tuned!