WRIF Virtual Rock Room with Vixen's Janet Gardner
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00:00Thank you so much for watching Riff TV. Now this interview is obviously with video, but I don't
00:05interview everybody on Zoom. That's why I put it on my Talkin' Rock with Meltdown podcast. We talk
00:10to rock artists from all over the genre. So check out Talkin' Rock with Meltdown wherever you get
00:15your podcasts. And now to today's video interview. There she is. Janet, how are you?
00:23Doing great, Meltdown. How are you doing? I'm doing good. I was thinking about this on the
00:28weigh-in today that the last time I saw you was January of 2020. So what's been going on since
00:34then? January of 2020. Well, a lot. You know, of course, we've been really busy working on this
00:42new album. And we really put a lot more effort into the actual recording quality. Justin went nuts. He
00:52was doing all kinds of research and watching different videos on how to make this thing sound
00:58as good as possible. So hopefully we've accomplished that. Yeah, it sounds really good. I was kind of
01:04getting at the fact that I saw you guys just before the whole world shut down. Yeah. Well, yeah. I mean,
01:11I'm tired of talking about that. So I didn't even bring it up. But yeah, we were stuck in the house
01:16and started losing our minds. The biggest highlight of our day, of course, was going into the basement
01:22recording new music. So that's how we took advantage of the pandemic because God knows we couldn't play
01:28for anyone. You know, our highlight of the day was walking the dog and making music. No, that's great.
01:36No, I was just talking about this with somebody else. It's like, you know, bands nowadays that most of
01:41I talked to are putting out, you know, they're putting out their pandemic albums. Right. Well,
01:45we already did that. Synergy was the one that we really recorded during that time. That's right.
01:50That's already out and, you know, done. And now we have no strings, which it was still kind of a
01:57pandemic. But it's, you know, it's been in the last two years that we've, we're working on no strings.
02:04So, yeah. So that's how, like you said, it sounds fantastic. It really does.
02:10Thank you so much. Yeah. We worked hard, especially Justin in that way of, he was tirelessly,
02:18you know, I am not nearly as technical as he is. I'm more of the, you know, feel person,
02:26tempos, arrangements, parts, chord changes, that kind of stuff. Technically, I'm, I'm pretty lame.
02:32So I leave a lot of that to him and he really, really did a great job. I'm so happy with the
02:39way it sounds. We compare it to our last albums. And even though, you know, we're proud of those
02:45and the songs are good and stuff like that, this one sounds just that much better. So, yay.
02:53So the record as we record, this is out today. So tell everybody about no strings, like give us some,
02:59some, some, some background stories, uh, tell us about some of the songs.
03:03Oh my gosh. Well, you know, we, um, we always like to do a lot of music that is relatable to
03:13people's everyday lives. And that's what we tried to do here, you know, empower people to make the
03:19changes they need to, to not be afraid to, you know, move forward instead of being stuck in a rut,
03:28things like that. And, you know, there's your typical relationship songs and things like that.
03:33But again, just trying to get songs that people can relate to and songs from our lives, because,
03:42you know, we have kids, we have jobs, we have everything everybody else has to deal with.
03:48So hopefully we've done that and people can listen to it and maybe be inspired, empowered.
03:56Yeah. Hence the title, no strings.
03:59Right. Exactly. Just, you know, live your life. I mean, commitments are really important,
04:05but it's also important to stay mobile, to be able to do what you need to do and what you're
04:15feeling in your heart. So yeah, that's what it's kind of about. And you feel like you accomplished
04:21that with this album? Um, I do. It's never perfect. It's never, you know, exactly what you want.
04:29There's always, you always look back and go, Oh, I wish I would have done this a little differently,
04:34or I wish I would have changed that lyric line or so. No, it's not perfect, but we're really proud
04:42of it for sure. Yeah. You probably get to a point when you're recording this stuff where it just has
04:47to be finished, right? Oh, exactly. I mean, you could change it and change it and redo it. I mean,
04:53one song we had literally 45 mixes of it, 45 mixes. It can get insane. And at some point,
05:05you know, it's like having a baby. You got to let the baby come out into the world. So,
05:10so here it is. Yeah, there it is. So you're talking about all these mixes and stuff. I was talking to
05:14Corey Taylor a few weeks ago and he was talking about how he's kind of like a one or two take guy.
05:18Actually his producer, Jay Rustin told me that, and he kind of elaborated on a little bit. Is that
05:23how you are? And what is it like working with Justin? Does he tell you, I go a little bit further
05:27over here or how does that work? Well, no, when I'm doing my vocals, I'm all by myself, which I
05:33really love. I, you know, for many years, there were always people in the control room and things that
05:39would kind of inhibit you. And now I'm down there by myself and I do it pretty much old school.
05:47Like I used to, I warm up a little bit. I do about four takes and then I make a comp. I take
05:53the best parts from each take and put it together. And I usually try to do like one whole verse.
06:01So it doesn't have phrases that don't make sense together and stuff like that. Like I'll pick my
06:06favorite verse, my favorite first chorus, my favorite second verse like that. And then I try to
06:12be done with it. You know, occasionally there's one line I can't find like four takes and every
06:18line of, of this particular phrase sucks. So I'll go back and I'll redo a line or two and
06:25that's it. Yeah. I mean, I try to keep, especially for vocal performances. If you keep doing it
06:32over and over and over and over, it gets stale. Right. I don't nail it on the third or fourth
06:38time through. I, I probably should just put it away and come back another day because
06:43that's kind of the sweet spot. Usually take three and four. I'm warmed up. I kind of know
06:49what I'm doing in the song, what I'm going for. I have a couple of ideas here and there.
06:53Ooh, that line worked. This one didn't stuff like that. So yeah, that's kind of my method.
07:00And then of course, you know, Justin's awesome. So he'll come in and at the end, I'll be like,
07:05what do you think? Is it okay? And you know, he's, he is great with that. He usually will
07:12just say, yeah, I love everything except this line or that line. And then I'll redo those.
07:19And then hopefully both of us are happy. Yeah. Are you, are you your worst critic?
07:24Oh, I don't know. I probably, probably. Yeah. Cause Justin, usually if I'll say,
07:32is that line okay? Or is it a little weird on this note or that note? And he'll go, no,
07:37it's, it's the vibe and the vibe is right. So go with it. So yeah, I probably am. There's
07:44probably moments where I redo tape over stuff. That's probably good, probably better than what
07:51I end up with. Yeah. I mean, it can be a dangerous thing to go. I'm going to record
07:57over that or I'm going to delete that. And then you go, I think that was better than what I'm doing
08:02now. Yeah. I've been there just in the measly stuff I do as far as your voice stuff and different
08:08things like that, you know? Oh, I'm sure it's, it's hard. It's difficult because when you're going
08:13to put it out for everyone to hear, you want it to be your best. And so yeah, being super critical
08:20is all part of it. Yeah. And sometimes, uh, perfection, uh, tends to be a little bit
08:26stale. You want it to be a little bit real, right? Oh, absolutely. Especially, you know,
08:31in rock music, you know, overly tuned, overly quantized where it feels like a machine and,
08:40you know, the vocalist sounds like a machine. I mean, that's not what we do and that's not what we
08:47ever will do. So yeah, if it's too perfect, then you lose the vibe. You lose the human element that
08:56is so important to move people. Right. Yeah. No question. What are some of the highlights on
09:01this record for you yourself? Song-wise or story-wise? Well, go both since you brought it up.
09:11Um, it's hard to pick because every song while you're doing it, you're putting your soul into
09:19it. And you know, when it's done, you try to detach a little bit and try to figure out objectively
09:27what are the best elements in the album. And I can't do it. I've tried. Songs mean a lot to us
09:35when they're very personal. Like there's a song called She Floats Away on this album and it's
09:41about our daughter. So that one is very near and dear to our hearts because, you know, and I hope
09:49that anyone with kids can relate to it because it's so difficult. You want to protect them and you want
09:55them to have perfect lives and you want to give that to them, but you can't. You have to let go,
10:01let them fly, let them make mistakes, let them fall, pick themselves up. You know, it's all about
10:06that kind of stuff. So, you know, that one's very personal. And some of the other ones, the single
10:12that's out today, I'm living free is really important to me for some things that I've been
10:18through. And, you know, when you're in a situation, whether it be a job or a relationship and you're not
10:24happy and you know, you should move on, you know, you should do something else and you stay a little
10:30bit too long, you know? And this song is kind of about that. It's like, you need to free yourself
10:39from toxic situations, no matter what it is. And I've never in my life made a big change and then
10:46look back and go, I shouldn't have done that. I made the wrong choice. I always look back and go,
10:52I made the right choice, but I wish I would have done it sooner. I wasted time, you know? And that's
10:58what the song I'm living free is about. And so it's one of my favorites. And that's about a past
11:05project? No, it's about lots of past things in life. Like I said, relationships that, you know,
11:12were toxic that, you know, you're in, you know, you need to move on jobs. I just recently quit a job
11:19where the owner of my boss was horrific. And I stayed there for a year and a half. What was I
11:26thinking? But I finally got out of that. So it's lots of things, bands, relationships, whatever.
11:33What are you doing for work nowadays? You mentioned jobs earlier. I was going to ask you about that.
11:37Yeah, I'm still a dental hygienist. I wasn't sure if you were still doing that or not. Yeah. Yeah,
11:41I do it like three days a week. And then the other four days a week, I get to do stuff I love.
11:47Not that I don't love it. Well, I like it. But yeah, it works good in my life. It gives me enough
11:56free time to make the music or Justin, hang out with our kids, do all that stuff.
12:04Yeah. Do people come into the doctor's office or the dentist's office and recognize you or know
12:09your past or anything? Occasionally, not very often. And it usually doesn't come up. I mean,
12:15you know, the patient comes in, if it's a new person or something, introduce yourself and
12:21you ask about them, of course, you know, what are you doing this summer? What do you do for living?
12:25Blah, blah, blah. It, you know, they assume since I'm the one sitting there cleaning their teeth,
12:30this, that's what I am. That's who I am. And that's all I am. And that's fine. But occasionally,
12:36yeah, I'll get somebody come in and go, Janet Gardner, are you that Janet Gardner?
12:40Yep. Very same. You should just start pulling up your videos on YouTube as people are in there
12:48getting their teeth clean. Yeah. Have it playing up on the screen. Here's your teeth. And for your
12:54entertainment, here's me in a video. That'd be funny to have a candid camera, hidden camera type
12:59thing. You can post it on your socials. That'd be great. If I could get my boss to go for it,
13:05I think you're onto something. Yeah. There you go. Uh, you're talking, you're talking about your
13:08kids. It's funny. Cause you know, I get, my kids are 20 and my daughter's going to be 22 this year.
13:12And, and my line of thinking was always that, uh, I had 18 years to mold and shape them. And after
13:17that they were on their own and hopefully they took what I taught them and they did the right thing.
13:22Absolutely. That's really, that's the best you can do. You know, it's, I try not to,
13:28Justin accuses me of being kind of a smothery mom. And I, you know, I'm really trying not to do that and,
13:36you know, let them fly and make mistakes and learn. Right. Oh, you know, it's, it's hard for
13:42me, but I'm, I'm doing it. I'm doing it. I'm letting them make their own decisions and act like
13:50adults. Yeah. Uh, so, uh, did you guys do the, um, did you guys do the monster rock cruise this year?
13:56We did. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was a lot of fun. I mean, Justin, I, Justin had done a couple of them
14:04with Taiketo and a bunch of them with Vixen. So we knew what it was about and stuff. And it was
14:09just nice to do our stuff on the cruise. Yeah. Great. Yeah. I talked to, uh, uh, Mark Kendall,
14:17uh, Steven Piercey, all those guys, man, they raved about it this year. Yeah. It was a lot of fun.
14:22And of course we saw those guys. They played great. Sounded great. Yeah. Are you a type person
14:28anyways when you're not playing? What? I did you like cruises in general? No, no, really? I've
14:34never been on one that we didn't play on. No, I do. I, you know, I would enjoy them, but
14:41you know, I kind of prefer like a nice hotel on a beach that doesn't move, that doesn't rock,
14:49that doesn't, you know, but, and I, you know, we like doing, I like doing, you know, nature
14:57stuff. I love going on hikes and stuff in the mountains and enjoying nature. Yeah. I get
15:04you. Cruises are great, but yeah, I don't think I'll ever go on one unless we're playing
15:09on it. Now you're in the Southwest, correct? No, we're in Chicago. Oh, you are. Okay. Why
15:14did I think you were down? Okay. I was going to say, yeah. So not much nature in Chicago,
15:18it seems like. Well, there are, there are nature preserves and there's, you know, state parks
15:23and stuff. So yeah, we, it's not like where I grew up in Montana, but yeah, we make the
15:29best of it. We find stuff to do outside. Speaking of growing up, you're, you're a Wikipedia and
15:35I don't like to really go on the Wikipedia too much, but there's two dates for your birthday
15:39says March 17th and March 21st or something. I know. I don't know what's wrong with whoever
15:42keeps doing that. It's March 17. Okay. You're a Pisces like me on March 10th. There you go.
15:48Pisces. Yeah. They always celebrate your birthday a lot harder than mine though.
15:53They do. Everything's green and lots of beer is flowing. Yeah. And you go, you go down to
15:58this shit. Do you go into Chicago for that at all or no? Well, we haven't because we moved
16:03here right before the pandemic. Oh, okay. So we really haven't had a chance to, but yeah,
16:08we probably will. You know, they dye the river green and they totally do up my birthday. So
16:14yeah. We'll have to go into the city next year. What kind of plans you got for the rest of this
16:20year? You're going to be out there touring, hitting the tour trail. What's happening?
16:22We are, we have some dates booked. Um, and they're, they're all really good ones. We,
16:29we start here in Chicago at home with, uh, opening for Queensryche. Oh, cool. And that's on the 24th.
16:34And then from there we have some acoustic shows, a couple of festival dates, um, a few clubs,
16:43things like that. We're really looking forward to cranking out these new songs. Um, yeah. So we
16:50probably have, we'll probably have about 10 dates, not a lot, but about 10 from now until the end of
16:56the year. And then next year they're working on getting us back to Australia. We did that right
17:04before the pandemic and it was amazing. So we want to go back there. So we're looking at that
17:08for next year and then we'll see what else shows up. Yeah. Well, the new record is out right now.
17:13It's called a no strings. It drops today. I was going to say no strings. It's kind of like your
17:17master of puppets, but, uh, not really, not really master of the non-puppets, but yeah, you know,
17:28with the Metallica boys, did you guys ever tour with them back in the day or no?
17:31Metallica. Yeah. No, actually, you know what? I've never met any of them. Okay.
17:39Love to, but it's never happened. It's one of the few bands where it's like, yeah, I've never even met
17:44any of them. Hmm. Yeah. Interesting. Uh, yeah. When they come through the area, you should go see
17:49them. What a show that is. Oh my God. Oh yeah. We, we probably will. We not only like playing shows,
17:55but we like going to see people. So we, it's funny cause we have a bunch of those planned for
18:01the summer to people who are coming here. Like, believe it or not, this is crazy. I've never seen
18:06Ann Wilson. Oh, wow. What is wrong with me? So anyway, she's coming around here. We're going to
18:13go see her. We're going to go see, it's my favorite singer summer. And then we're going to go see Lou
18:19Graham. He's playing around here too. So yeah, we got, we got plans to play some shows and go to
18:24some shows. Have you, have you ever met Ann Wilson or no? No, I've met other members of heart.
18:31Like many other members of heart never met the two girls. Are you gonna get a chance to go say
18:37hi to her? I don't know. We'll try. Yeah. If she's receiving visitors, what other, uh, what other
18:46singers, uh, would you want to go see? Oh my God. So many. Um, well, I'm trying to think band wise.
18:57I mean, I had never seen hail storm. Love Lizzie hail would love to see them. Um, I want to see,
19:05uh, plush great band. Yeah. Yeah. I want to see, I've never seen shine down. Love him.
19:14Really? Yeah. Never seen. I love his voice. There's a lot that I haven't seen that I need to,
19:21but you know, we're kind of limited to who's around here. Cause just cause you know, I'm not
19:27for traveling unless we're playing. So yeah, we'll see who else comes through, but you know,
19:33I've seen so many bands on the cruises at festivals, especially bands from our genre.
19:39I've seen everybody pretty much, but there's a few, there's a few left. I haven't seen like, Oh,
19:45um, well, there's some new ones like eclipse was on the cruise and somehow they played twice and we
19:55missed them both times. Terrible. Um, that's one that does, you know, similar music. They're current,
20:04but they, you know, they do the same type of music we do. I'd like to see them trying to think of who
20:12else I didn't see. I've never seen Cinderella. Really? One of my favorite bands. Love those.
20:17I know. I know what is wrong with me. It was another thing. They were on one of the cruises
20:24and somehow I missed them. I can't remember who was playing at the same time, but it was someone
20:30else I'd never seen. I think it was now I had seen them. I don't know. Somehow I miss Cinderella.
20:36So I'd like to see Tom Kiefer. Okay. Well, yeah, it's great, but I have not seen actual Cinderella.
20:46Well, now with, uh, Jeff LaBarre being gone, I don't know if they're going to,
20:49who knows what's going to happen with that. I know, I know, but at least Tom's still out there
20:54doing stuff and he's awesome. Fantastic. Yeah. Well, no strings is out right now. Janet,
20:59always a great to see you. We'll give this a good plug and we'll see you next time you come
21:03through the motor city. Awesome. Hopefully we'll be there soon. Thanks meltdown. All right.