Interview by Tony Cannella
Motor Sister is the new project featuring Jim Wilson from Mother Superior, Scott Ian from Anthrax, Joey Vera from Armored Saint, John Tempesta from The Cult and Pearl Aday. They got together to perform songs from one of their favorite bands Mother Superior, and the result is their debut album “Ride”. The vibe of the record is classic, authentic rock n’ roll. Sadly that is something that we are not getting a ton of these days which makes “Ride” a pretty fresh sounding record. Recently, vocalist Pearl Aday was kind enough to take a few moments to discuss the album and what she has planned for the future.
Tell us how Motor Sister originally came about?
It originally came about because it was Scott Ian – My husband’s 50th birthday, and one of the things he wanted to do the most for his birthday was to not only hear the music of Mother Superior again but to also get to play it. We put together a band that would play including Jim Wilson who is the founding member and front man of Mother Superior – it’s his music, he wrote the music. He’s a friend of ours so we called him up and we called up John Tempesta and we put our own version of a great band together. We learned the songs and we invited 20 people and we had a party. So it really was essentially we put together a party so that we could play the music and hear it live again.
How did you go about choosing which songs to play and then which songs to record?The songs we recorded are the same songs we played that night. Scott was the one who went through and had to choose – I think he chose 12 of his favorite Mother Superior songs, so those are the ones we went with.
I really love the record. It is definitely something that you don’t hear a ton of these days. For anyone who hasn’t heard it “Ride”, how would you describe it?This is rock and roll. Some people these days might not even understand what that means anymore, but to us this is what rock and roll should be. It’s genuine, it’s hard-hitting, it’s soulful, it’s real – it’s rock and roll. There’s really nothing else to call it.
You recorded “Ride” in two days. What was that whole process like?We got all together in the same room in the recording studio and played the songs, it took us two days and that was that. It’s that good, this group working together, we all make it easy for each other.
Is this just a one/off or do you think there is a chance for new music from Motor Sister?Yeah, for sure. I think that’s something that everybody would love to do. This album isn’t even out yet, but it’s already getting a great response. We just played our first actual public live show – aside from the party – in Brooklyn last week and that was a packed house and everybody had their hands up in the air and were head banging. This album comes out March 10th so we’re going to move with this album. We’ve been talking about making some new music together already, some originals coming up. It feels really good and it works really well and it sounds really great with this specific group, that it’s something that we definitely want to carry forward.
We played the 12-songs from the album. We played every song that’s on the album plus one extra Mother Superior song that we didn’t record, that we will.
You also have Joey Vera and John Tempesta in the band. Were they already familiar with Mother Superior or did you have to get them up to speed?Joey definitely was. He has worked with Mother Superior in the past and he’s familiar with their catalog and knew their music and was and is a fan. We wanted John Tempesta to play drums so we introduced him to the music and he immediately fell in love with it.
You are primarily a background vocalist on the record. Was there ever an idea for you to sing lead on 1 or 2 songs?Yeah. You know that’s something that might possibly happen coming up in the future. Jim has always tried to get me sing more or take a verse here and there. I want to hear Jim. I’m a huge, dorky fan of Jim Wilson and Mother Superior and all of these songs. I really just want hear Jim sing his songs but it’s possible that I might step a little bit forward into the spotlight. It’s something that I’ve heard from Jim and I’ve heard from other people that it would be nice. People would like to hear that and see it, so it’s something that might happen.
Are there any plans to take this on the road for a full tour, or are you just going to do shows here and there?Well, it depends on what works out best. Everybody’s got their day jobs, everybody’s got their own bands that they’re in. It depends on scheduling pretty much, but it’s something that we’ll be working to make time to do for sure.
Personally for you, do you have anything planned for the future?Jim and I have been recording a follow up album to our last one, our last album was called “Little Immaculate White Fox”. We also did an acoustic version of that album which was called “The Swing House Sessions” and now we are almost finished with a brand-new album. We have 9-songs recorded and finished and we’ve just decided to add two more tracks which we’ll be recording in the next couple of months.
Thanks for taking the time to answer these questions. I love the record. In closing, do you have any final messages for the fans who might thinking about picking up “Ride”?Do it. This is the record that you don’t know that you need. (laughs)
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