Quiet Riot Officially Name ‘American Idol’ Finalist James Durbin as New Singer
Yesterday (March 3), we reported that it had appeared that Quiet Riot recruited American Idol finalist James Durbin as their new singer and Frankie Banali has now confirmed the news in a new interview with Billboard.
In October of last year, Quiet Riot named Seann Nicols as their new singer, the fourth in total to front the band since the death of Kevin DuBrow in 2007. The vocalist sang on their forthcoming record, Road Rage, but his tenure was short-lived as he was replaced after just a handful of shows with Quiet Riot.
"After doing all of five live shows [with Nicols], it became apparent to everybody that it really wasn't going to work," began Banali. "There were some serious creative and personal differences. I'm not the type of person who will stay in a bad marriage for the kids — the kids in this case being Quiet Riot. It was unanimous it could not go any further."
Noting the timing of the singer switch isn't ideal considering there will be a new record to promote that Nicols sang on, Banali admitted, "There's no comfortable thing about this situation." Continuing, he said, "I think the record turned out great. But it's not that band anymore, so we have to deal with it. Is it troublesome? Absolutely. Is it risky? Absolutely. Is it the right thing to do? Absolutely!"
Durbin, who first heard Quiet Riot in the early 2000s through the Legends of Wrestling video game, commented on his instatement, "I think there's some really awesome gems in the Quiet Riot catalog that are really overlooked. love 'Put Up or Shut Up.' I love 'Condition Critical' and 'Thunderbird,' even the song 'It Sucks to Be You' from the Quiet Riot documentary [Well Now You’re Here, There’s No Way Back]. I'm really looking forward to putting my spin on it as a singer. I feel I'm much more melodic in my singing than some of the singers Quiet Riot has featured in the past, so I'm looking forward to soaring those vocals over the crowd."
Banali also said the band plans to start writing new material quickly, eager to get Durbin in the studio to start defining a new era of Quiet Riot. "I expect to start writing soon. I don't know if we'll do another record next year or not. You can't predict, but we're certainly going to start writing probably in the next month or so in preparing for another record," said the drummer.
Quiet Riot's new record, Road Rage, will be released on April 21 through Frontiers Records. Pre-orders can be placed at Amazon or digitally through iTunes and digital pre-orders will include an instant gratification download of the new single, “The Seeker."
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