Dennis Atlas, Toto / The Trip / Solo Artist

Dennis Atlas is currently keyboardist for the renowned rock band Toto, joining the band in 2024 as their second keyboardist, replacing Steve Maggiora. We talk to Dennis about that amazing opportunity, his burgeoning solo career and his other projects. To listen / watch: Audio-only: click on the play button in the audio player above, or:...

The post Dennis Atlas, Toto / The Trip / Solo Artist appeared first on The Keyboard Chronicles.

Episode Transcript

(00:07):
Hello everyone and welcome to the Keyboard Chronicles podcast.
For keyboard players, I'm your host David Holloway and I'm really pumped as always to behere with you.
And I'm always particularly excited when Paul Bindig's joined me.
How are you, sir?
I have that effect on people.
You do?
I'm excited to be here too, David.
I'm going really well and I hope you are too.
Yeah, look, we're in a bit of a positive mood.

(00:29):
We're always in a positive mood anyway, Paul, but it's hard not to be positive after...
talking to Dennis Atlas.
So we've just jumped off an hour and 10 minute interview with Dennis.
And as you'll hear and see, Dennis is one of the most positive guys with an amazingoutlook on life for a guy only in his 30s.

(00:50):
I don't know, Paul, I'm not sure I was quite that optimistic, but it's certainly paid offfor him in combination with his talent and just really great insights on.
his own strengths, weaknesses and how he approaches life was just, was, I think it wasinspirational.
Yeah, it really was.
He had some really great, just some stories that led to some really cool advice for anyoneas they're progressing whatever it is they do in life.

(01:15):
And you know what I think about positive people, David, positive things tend to happen tothem and it's not because of magic.
It happens because they, you know, they
they deal with challenge and they move on to the next thing pretty quickly and they thinkwell what can I take out of that and they're always looking for that opportunity and I
think that's why people who generally have that sort of outlook are quite successful andas we're going to hear Dennis has been very very successful in his career thus far.

(01:43):
Yeah and if you play in a cover band there's lots of great chat about the the experienceof cover band musicianship and Ricks.
or whether you're a Toto fan or a prog rock fan or all three combined, there's lots tolike about this one.
So we'll let you go listen and we'll talk to you after the show.

(02:11):
Dennis, it's an absolute pleasure and honor to have you on the show, sir.
How are you?
Well, thank you so much.
Glad to be here.
I'm doing good.
How about you?
Yeah, good.
Good.
Thank you.
And I mean, it's been a couple of weeks nearly since you just wrapped up an amazing tour.
So we'll get into that in more depth later.
But how have you gone getting back to some sort of normality after the last few months?

(02:36):
Well, it actually it feels really good.
I was very ready to come home after a
job completed and just kind that triumphant feeling of, okay, we did it.
man, being home feels amazing and just laying in bed and watching TV is great.
But also having time to be in the studio and working on stuff is, it's just so huge.

(02:59):
don't always realize it until you're back to it.
It's like, I could just do what I need to do.
Yeah, no, exactly.
No, I'm sure it's wonderful.
So no, we're definitely going to dig into why you've been away for a few months in asecond.
And also your amazing solo work.
So we'll get onto that.
But we'll start with our standard question of your musical upbringing.

(03:19):
So tell us about the younger Dennis, you know, those, you know, say from the age of fiveor six through to 18.
What what got you into music and made you passionate about it?
Yeah, well, my parents and my brother, my older brother, my family was musical and
just had a lot of influence on me.
Growing up, we would watch these VHS tapes of rock videos and we had a whole Queen concerton VHS and all these vinyl and CDs and whole drawers full of CDs, great stuff.

(03:50):
And I just remember my earliest memories were, what do you want to be when you grow up?
I want to be a rock star.
There was never any second choice or any second option.
That's it, I'm going to do that.
Then my parents signed me up for piano lessons when I was eight, even though I thought Ialready knew everything there was to know on the piano.
They already showed me a C major chord.

(04:11):
I could play a C major chord and a C minor chord.
thought, that's it.
I know how to play piano.
But they set me up with lessons.
Turned out we just happened to stumble upon the greatest piano teacher I could havepossibly had out in Santa Clarita, California, Jeannie Jordan.
And it was classical piano lessons.
She taught
music theory and everything really, really well.

(04:33):
And she and my parents encouraged me to keep playing the rock music and the music that Iloved and that I enjoyed playing and do it alongside all of the reading and the technical,
all of that kind of music that I was learning in the classical lessons, which was blowingmy mind as well.

(04:55):
So when you put those two things together, I had this
framework that I was able to go into anything in my teenage years I made a band with mybrother and we were writing some cool music in that and I started playing in some cover
bands and a sticks tribute band and things like that and Yeah, so there you go.
There's there's my background growing up and how I got into it So how did you go from?

(05:21):
Young enthusiastic guy getting piano lessons being really well encouraged
to when do the first gigs start happening?
When do you start playing out?
How did that all become a thing for you?
Well, to take your question very literally, well, to take it extremely literally, Istarted in the school talent show.
Let's start with that because you got to start somewhere.

(05:43):
And that was the thing that I would look forward to every year.
there's actually my dad decided to upload it to YouTube back at that time, which wasexciting.
I sing.
sing a song in the talent show and do things like that.
Then my dad got me a gig at actually a retirement home.
So I was up there playing piano and singing for about 30 minutes and that was my firstpaid gig.

(06:04):
I got something for that and I was 12 or something around that age.
But we kind of made a family band and would start playing and just certain occasions arein the backyard and then my brother and I made a band and again, our parents either
my dad or one of the other guys' dads would help us get a gig somewhere.

(06:28):
We even played at Magic Mountain one time, Six Flags Magic Mountain, which was reallycool.
And it's always fun to think that anytime I'm walking through the park, I'm going, yeah,we played right there.
So we'd play our own songs and we'd throw in some of our favorite covers or things that wewere able to do.
then my first real professional gig that paid over $100 was...

(06:53):
Actually a guy with a Sticks tribute band discovered the Sticks tribute band that I madewith my friends when I was a teenager, which was a whole story, but he discovered us on
YouTube and he sent us a message and said, hey, I'm coming to Arizona and you guys are inCalifornia and he was from New York.
So the geography there being that we were a lot closer and he said, I'm just gonna hireyou guys and I'm gonna sing for you guys at a casino.

(07:21):
And we were all 17.
And we went, okay, let's do it.
And he didn't tell the agent we were all 17.
He just said, you'll never believe it, my new band, they're great, you're gonna love them.
He hasn't played with us yet, he just saw music videos, but he had that good feeling.
So we just did this amazing show at Casino Arizona in 2015.

(07:42):
They were a little surprised when we showed up and we were all teenagers and not legallyallowed to be in the casino, but they said as long as you're on stage and then you leave
afterward, it's okay.
But then they didn't hire us back for another
four years.
anyway, that was kind of how it all started.
I ended up getting into the tribute bands and the cover bands and meeting the people whowere able to help teach me how to actually record all the music that I was writing and get

(08:09):
that out as well.
is an amazing story.
you have your teenage friends, you have your own Sticks tribute band, you're uploadingvideos on the YouTube and then a
professional sticks tribute artists with a really good gig at a casino says, Hey, I'm justgonna take you guys.
That's that's actually an amazing story.
I can't believe that.
was what was the reaction when I mean, obviously, as you said, it was like, Yeah, but wewere blown away.

(08:34):
Or were you like, well, yeah, no, we're good.
This this should be happening to us.
mean, it's Yeah, the thing is, I remember it's one of those universe things where I wasthinking, okay, we're good.
We have our stuff together.
mean, we've got 20 stick songs down and I'm going to start getting videos and sending themout to places.

(08:57):
And I'm trying to write emails myself to, you know, whatever venue I'm seeing othertribute bands play at.
And I'm looking them up and I'm looking Casino Arizona.
There's a stick tribute band playing there.
We should be playing there.
Why are they playing there?
And that was the I was looking at the date.
It was already posted.
They already booked the band.
They just didn't technically it was the agent booked the band, you know, the singer.

(09:19):
So we ended up getting that exact gig.
So I'll never forget the moment the guitar player, my best friend growing up, the two ofus, we started this band together when we were 14.
And he sends me a message saying, check the one with everything page, the Sticks tributepage that we had.
There's someone messaging us.

(09:40):
And I'm thinking, okay, what kind of scam or something is this?
And I'm looking at like this guy, Jim Vignato is from Rock in the Paradise.
I know he's legit, I've seen his video.
Wow, he's sending me a set list and he actually, ended up letting, the thing is that he'sjust this brilliantly fun guy.
I mean, it felt good right away and he talked to my parents and that kind of stuff.

(10:04):
So the feeling at first was like, what is this?
Okay, yeah, let's do this.
This is exactly what we're meant for.
And it was just this big triumphant moment.
So I'll never forget that.
I have to ask Dennis, as 14 year olds, why Stix?
What made a group of guys in 14 and look, Stix are brilliant, right?
But they're not exactly of your era.
What made you all choose Stix as the tribute of choice?

(10:29):
I've been an obsessive Stix fan since I was three.
that's just, that's all I can say.
I helped get my friends into them.
My parents, my brother got me into that band and all the other bands.
mean, Queen and
Dream Theater, all my other favorite progressive rock, classic rock bands.
For some reason, I just really latched onto Styx, for many reasons.

(10:52):
I could explain them, but when you listen to Styx, you just know the magic.
They were my biggest influence at that time, and I got my friends into them as well andlearned a lot.
We all learned a lot learning that music.
There's so much.
It's like a master class in
styles and instrumentation and harmony when you've decided to learn some stick songs.

(11:16):
before we move on to talking about your very exciting gig with Toto, I'd like to explorethis cover band, tribute band thing a little bit more if it's okay, Dennis.
Yeah, sure.
A great number of our listeners are in cover bands, tribute bands, as are David and I.
So this is fascinating for us to talk to a colleague, although you're playing at asignificantly higher level than we are.

(11:41):
So tell us about, you've got this cover band called The Trip.
Yeah, so actually that led to me getting the gig with Toto.
Okay, tell us that story.
I had a good feeling when The Trip called me.
I couldn't really explain why.
I was just going, I feel like I should play with this band.
They just seem like good guys and they ended up being great.

(12:02):
That's a band that I didn't create.
the That was like the opposite situation as with the Sticks Tribute Band.
This was something that came to me that had existed since honestly before I was born.
They've been playing together for 20 something years and or probably around around thetime I was born.
They were forming the band and they had built it up to this level where just as a coverband they were they're making good money.

(12:28):
They're playing all over Southern California.
Sometimes they do these fly out gigs and
I had never heard of them, so I was kind of surprised.
looking them up, I'm going, man, I mean, they're legit.
Then I met them and they were just the sweetest, easiest going guys.
They wanted to add songs to the list, whatever I wanted to do and just kind of, it wasthis really comfortable environment.

(12:54):
And I could see why they had the success and the connections that they had.
So one of those connections being Ron Thal, Bumblefoot.
unbelievable virtuoso guitar player and plays with the band as a special guest here andthere.
So we did some gigs in Iowa and he would come out and it would kind of be this cool thing.

(13:18):
It's The Trip plus Ron Thal from Guns N' Roses.
Super sweet guy and that's kind of how I became friends with him and we ended up, we evendid a gig together, just the two of us.
Yeah, anyway, The Trip, man, I learned a lot over the past couple years with them.
they had a repertoire of about 300 songs before I joined.

(13:39):
So I learned about 40 of them for the first gig.
And this is the first band I've ever been in, at least since that first professional gigwhere I learned, okay, we have to have a setlist.
We have to really know what we're doing.
The trip could, I mean, we write setlists, but we could just as well not.

(14:00):
People throw out requests.
And at the time we
Usually would do these big corporate parties and stuff and not even have a set list justhere's our list of 300 songs Let's just choose this and this and this read the room
someone would kind of we have like a talkback mic or something that only we hear and itkind of just blew me away how versatile these musicians were doing anything from the

(14:21):
Beatles to Uptown Funk by Bruno Mars or cake by the ocean and then everything in betweenNirvana and and Kansas and Boston and just anything anything at all the band could do it
so
That was a, it has been a really, really good learning curve and we've added a lot ofsongs in and I've learned a lot of songs I wouldn't have otherwise known.

(14:41):
And then it ultimately led to me meeting Bumblefoot who introduced me to Luke, SteveLukather.
So.
Yeah.
And we'll, we'll definitely get to that, but the burning question on all of our mindsright now is what sort of keyboard rig do we take to a gig where you could be playing any
one of 300 songs?
How, what's your go-to equipment for that?

(15:04):
I was going to turn around because about five minutes ago my laptop was sitting here.
Now it's sitting here.
This is the rig, this thing right here.
I've used various MIDI controllers or just keyboards as MIDI controllers.
So for instance, I love using the Chord Kronos because of the feel of the keys.
But ultimately I use it as a MIDI controller when I'm playing live.

(15:28):
In the studio, it's great having a million things that all inspire various forms of
inspiration but live I've never found a system that I just feel as unlimited with as I dowith main stage and all the various plugins that you can throw into it and I've also I
mean I've heard of other things like Ableton or gig performer I haven't tried them out I'mvery open to it as well but I've I've loved main stage and first of all getting a little

(15:57):
techie here I've been able to use an interface and put my guitar
My vocal and anything, if I have an acoustic guitar or anything, can go into the interfaceand all go through main stage as well.
So in the trip, for instance, as opposed to most of these other bands, the trip, I'mplaying rhythm guitar, I'm singing backing and lead vocals, and I'm playing keys.

(16:23):
And again, we're doing anything, no backing tracks, nothing's prerecorded.
We're doing anything from
from moves like Jagger to I wanna hold your hand, everything's in there.
So I just can have my list of a hundred songs in there and main stage scroll to them, bam,we're there.
And I have my guitar sound ready to go.

(16:45):
And with a patch change, it can change my guitar sound and my keyboard sound at the sametime.
Ultimately, we ended up changing the drummer retired and he was the one running our clicktracks and calling the songs.
Now,
I'm the one calling the songs and running the click tracks.
Well, I do that in main stage.
So again, with that interface, I have two outputs left and right for keyboard.

(17:07):
I could have multiple outputs for the various keyboard sounds, which we'll get to, butthat's what I do in Toto, is I have one out for piano, one out for organ, things like
that.
But in that band, I would have left and right out for keyboard, left and right out forguitar.
So one and two, then three and four.

(17:27):
and then click could come out five, my vocal could come out six, and if I ever wanna add adelay or something to my vocal before it even hits the soundboard, that's all doable right
there in Mainstage.
You just need a really reliable, fast computer.
Yeah.
That's right.
So as a Mainstage user, that's what I was about to ask you is what sort of computer areyou rocking and what do you go to plugins that...

(17:52):
allow you to maintain the CPU load at a decent level over so many different songs?
Well, I have no discipline when it comes to using plugins that save CPU, so I prefer tojust get the best laptop that I can and figure some people spend $10,000 on a guitar, I

(18:12):
could spend $4,000 on a laptop.
I'm gonna, yeah, I just...
At some point I figured out how to create aliases in main stage.
I wish I had done that from the very beginning, because it took a lot of going back andrealizing, my God, I've been copying things.
There's been duplicates of things in my project.

(18:33):
That same piano sound millions of times.
And then I figured out, you create an alias and now it's just reading it from the firstone.
OK, there's tips like that that obviously make it better.
And then if you have reverbs and things you don't really need, you can get rid of those.
But no, I use.
I use a lot of the internal main stage stuff and over the years I've added in nativeinstruments.

(18:53):
love a, there's a plugin I love called Nexus by REFX and it's great.
They have a lot of expansions that go with it and I've used some addictive keys a littlebit here and there.
Recently I got Arturia and that's, that's going to be a game changer as well.
I've used it a couple of times so far, but it's, that's yeah.

(19:14):
Also OOPX, OOPX.
Yeah, yes.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, by Sonic projects.
Unbelievable that that was a game changer as well.
Great.
Now a great set of plugins.
Now I've got the most deepest and most confrontational question of the whole show to askyou.
I hear that I've heard you referred to on the trip band pages.

(19:35):
Dennis only eat cheese once in a while.
Atlas.
I have to know.
I have to know the story behind that.
They all make fun of me because.
Sometimes I come in and I say I'm lactose intolerant.
Sometimes I come in and just eat an entire bowl of fettuccine Alfredo and have pizza fordessert.
It just depends on what I'm feeling.

(19:57):
I mean, I think it's because for months I was trying to keep up with it.
And I'm always in, it's always at the most inconvenient time.
We're all ordering something really quick and I'm going, that burger, does that come withcheese?
Yeah, could I get it without the cheese?
Is it cooked in butter?
Could we get nut?
So I'll do all of that.
And then five minutes later, I'm having a pizza.
I feel like
Most lactose intolerant people are like that.
It's kind of, am I even lactose intolerant?

(20:19):
It could be something else.
Let's get a doctor.
I'm a keyboard player.
I'm not a doctor.
I love it.
That's great.
There's, the story behind that.
Yeah, no, that's excellent.
Thank you.
And so you've alluded to the fact that Ron Paul introduced you to Luke.
So let's talk about that and how that came about and the lead up to your last, you know,this amazing 2024.

(20:41):
Yeah, I mean, obviously it's one thing to be introduced to Steve Lukather.
It's it's getting to that next step.
So I love to hear the story.
Yeah, absolutely.
So this is always a fun story to tell.
It just happened.
It's September 17th right now.
And I've now I've been around the world and I've played the Hollywood Bowl and justseveral, not even several, a few months ago.

(21:03):
It feels like several days ago, I was sitting at the airport with my girlfriend.
We're ready to fly home.
I mean,
I'm from California.
She's from Iowa and we were flying to see her family in Iowa.
I got a text out of the blue from my old buddy Ron Thal and he just says, hey, do you knowa lot of Toto songs?

(21:24):
And like I was mentioning earlier, Ron and I did a gig once where was just he and I, wereplaying some songs and I figured he might be wanting to play more Toto songs or something.
He might have something else in mind.
anyway, I just said, I mean, I know a few, I could learn more.
you know, what's up?
And he says, I just got a message from Luke and as much as I love playing with you in thetrip, I couldn't not refer you to that situation.

(21:49):
It'd be perfect for you.
Here's their set.
Let's just listen to it just in case, just so you know, you're familiar with it.
I went, okay.
And so that I listened to it in the plane and I'm going, man, where has Toto been all mylife?
Because like I said, I've, I mean, obviously I knew the hits.
and my dad has the first album on vinyl and I've heard it, but I've heard probably five,six Toto songs, like really familiar with them anyway beforehand.

(22:19):
And I've always loved them.
And most of the musicians I play with have always admired them and loved them.
And I'm just listening to them in the plane going, man, where has this been all my life?
This is right up my alley.
Okay, I kind of skipped a step.
Our plane got.
Our routing got screwed up and instead of flying into Iowa, we had to fly into Arizona andstay overnight with a friend of mine and then fly to Iowa the next day because the whole

(22:47):
flight, all the flights into Iowa got canceled.
So luckily I had a friend in Arizona and I was able to take that flight.
So we land there in Arizona.
My friend, an old buddy of mine who I played in a Kansas tribute band with, you might befamiliar with him, David and Paul, his name's Buck.
And he's fantastic musician, just wonderful guy.

(23:09):
And he, he, he's also a pilot.
So it was perfect.
I love calling him anytime.
Hey, so they're telling us that the flight got delayed because of this or that.
Anyway, the, we landed in Arizona.
He picked us up and I said, you'll never guess this text that I just got this morning fromRon.
And he said, he referred me to Toto and he goes, wow.

(23:31):
Okay.
Well that's.
That's cool.
mean, what do you think the chances of anything coming out of that are?
I'm like, you know, dude, people, people take Ron's suggestion pretty seriously, I bet,but we'll see.
And because, but anyway, that's so funny because he says that's so funny because I wasjust learning Rosanna today for my cover band all day.

(23:51):
I'm working on it.
And he's also a main stage user.
So he's, we're all ready to go start geeking out over this main stage.
So as soon as we got home to his place, he's showing me the
the project he created and he showed me a little bit of it on piano and I said, okay,tomorrow when I wake up, we're just gonna work on Rosanna all day.

(24:11):
You're gonna show me how to play it, we're gonna work on the sounds, we're gonna get itall really tight and I'm gonna shoot a video of me playing Rosanna and I'll send it, Ron,
and he could forward it to Luke just to kind of help solidify, it might get my name uphigher on the list or something like that.
Woke up the next morning and my flight wasn't until 6 p.m.

(24:33):
so we had a few hours to...
Buck was showing me how to play it on the piano and then we went over to the keyboard andwe worked on the sounds he had already worked up, kind of a pretty good way of playing
that whole song which of course Toto has always played it with two keyboard players and wefigured out a way to kind of get most of it accomplished with one keyboard in main stage.

(25:00):
We did that.
I shot a video of it, but I had just learned it.
So I wasn't real tight with it.
And I was playing it on Buck's keyboard, which is different field than mine.
And I just was going, all right, this is pretty good.
But we got to the airport and I started kind of editing it together.
And I went, this is just, I can't send this.
I can tell when I'm watching this that I learned it that day.

(25:21):
And I don't want this to be their first impression of me playing it.
So I didn't send it.
The next morning was Saturday morning.
I woke up in Iowa.
And I woke up to a text from Ron saying, Hey man, Luke's going to give you a call today.
He's going to give you the gig today.
Don't tell him I told you, but he's going to give you the gig today.

(25:42):
And a message with like, so what you'll want to talk about is things like wardrobe.
might not want to wear your sparkly pants on stage with Toto and sent me kind of a, here'swhat to expect from the phone call.
But this is really, really cool.
I wish I was a keyboard player is what Ron said.
And.
He, so I'm freaking out and ultimately, let's see what happened next.

(26:06):
I went and got pizza because I'm lactose intolerant and I have to my deep fish pizza assoon as there's the opportunity.
I went and ordered it and it was taking forever to order and Luke actually emailed me backand said, okay, yeah, let's FaceTime.
So I ran back over to the hotel we were staying at across the street from the pizza placeand got on the phone.

(26:29):
Steve Lukather Face timed me and I'm uh-huh.
And so get on the phone and Steve goes, so what are you doing for the next several years?
And I went, love that.
And he went, I mean, I'm just saying, cause you know, you're the guy and blah, blah, blah,blah, blah.
And he's just kind of like already just threw it out there.
He's like, yeah, I mean, you know, we like what you got.

(26:50):
And it's a, it's just, just feels good.
I like the vibe that I'm getting from you.
So, and he just launched right into it.
And I'm just, I'm just listening, you know.
And I'm going, okay, yeah, let's do it.
Let's go, let's go.
Anyway, he turns out he's a super sweet, super cool guy and he's like laughing.
Yeah, you'll like the guys, man.
So you're ready to go.
You wanna get on tour and do this thing?

(27:11):
I mean, we got one rehearsal.
So I mean, I hope you can get it ready in time and rehearsal is June 11th.
then we hop on the plane.
So you ready to go, buddy?
All right, cool.
Good to meet you.
Hung up.
And I just go, yeah!
Ran back across the street to the pizza place.
My pizza was ready.
And I take it and I say to the girl, I got the gig, I'm in Toto.
And she goes, cool.

(27:33):
No, she says, you know, really?
Who are they?
No, no one really knew what I was talking about.
But I was all excited, ran back to the hotel room and ate my pizza.
But before I could eat the pizza, had to call, first I called my girlfriend, I called Ron,I called my parents.
And the very first person I called after,

(27:55):
after those first few phone calls was Buck and I said, I'm in Toto.
And he goes, no way, no way.
He's freaking out.
And he had all kinds of dad questions like, did you talk about this and that?
Are they gonna pay for this thing?
are they?
So there you go.

(28:17):
There's the story.
A little bit long winded there, but that's basically how that all happened.
know, definitely not long winded.
That's amazing.
And so just for the sake of our listeners, we always mention at the end of the show forthose that stick around to the end, the musicplay.com forums and Buck is a member of those
forums and has been beyond stoked in Aussie slang or proud of the fact that Dennis hasscored the Toto gig and so we're aware of that connection before we caught up.

(28:46):
and what was that rehearsal like?
Dennis, so you've got that one rehearsal.
How did that go for you?
Yeah, well, I will.
preface this by saying that it's kind of, it's not entirely true to say that there was onerehearsal.
There was one band rehearsal.
The truth is that what's even cooler is that I ended up going to David Page's house andworking with him and with Greg, of course, Greg Fillengains, the keyboard player, and we

(29:17):
worked out the keyboard parts together.
And we did that for two or three days before the
the rehearsals happened, the one rehearsal happened.
So basically I got back from Iowa and had a couple weeks, because let's see, that was May9th or something, and the rehearsal was June 11th, and I had trip gigs going on this whole

(29:43):
time, including two trip gigs, no, we had two trip gigs in Iowa.
So I flew back from Iowa, had some gigs at home, learned all the stuff.
flew back to Iowa to do a couple of trip gigs and then flew back the day before therehearsal.
So I kind of had things going on in and out of trying to learn two hours of Toto material.

(30:07):
And Luke's texting me every couple of days going, hey man, how's it going?
I'm just checking up on you.
Just want to make sure I'm just kind of, you know, I know you got it.
You got it.
You play with Ron.
You're good.
But I'm, you know, I'm just a little nervous.
mean, we got to, there's 20,000 people at the first show.
Are you sure you're going to be ready?
I'm like, yep, yep, we're good.
We got this.
So.
Yeah, they definitely made sure before they flew the whole band out and had no backup planthat I went over to David Page's house and played with Greg.

(30:34):
And I showed up there and had the first half of the songs that we, the first chunk of themwe were going to work on.
And I kind of thought, okay, I mean, I, I have this down.
They already sent me which part between Greg and I, which part I was responsible forcovering.
which usually Greg's covering the piano and then I do kind of everything else, like allthe organ, synths, and et cetera, horns, for the most part.

(31:01):
So I was clear on what I had to learn.
I learned it for those seven songs or whatever we started with, and I showed up and I'mkind of going, okay, I know these guys are total, not only just industry giants and
they've played on a million albums and played with everybody and they're musical geniuses.
and phenomenal keyboard players, but I know what I'm playing, so what are they gonna say?

(31:27):
Well, let me tell you this.
They were very impressed.
They really loved what I was doing.
They loved what I played, and they loved that I showed up so prepared.
I was ready to walk on stage.
I mean, that's the only way to show up with something like that.
But they also had things to say every turn, every corner.
It was like, hey, that sound, let's turn down the cutoff frequency on that a little bit.

(31:48):
Or that one, that pad.
You need to brighten that a little because it's not going to cut through the PA or thisarticulation you're playing here.
Are you fingering it like that?
Finger it like this.
I'm going, my God, this is great.
So I got the best masterclass from two of the greatest keyboard masters and songwritingmasters for that matter that you could never have paid for.

(32:11):
And I just got to sit there and experience it.
I'm just smiling.
I'm just grinning from ear to ear.
I'd play something for two seconds and Greg would kind of stand up and go, huh.
And then he'd walk around and play on my keyboard and show me how I could articulatebetter or some little detail about it.
And I'm just going, let's never stop this.
Let's just keep going.
And it was great.

(32:32):
So at the end of that first day, I said something like, so do I still have the gig?
And Greg said, yes, but now you can't leave.
And so it was all good news from there.
They sent Luke a text saying, calm down, there's nothing to worry about.

(32:53):
He's got this.
We went over some vocals and things like that too.
And I mean, Dennis, my view for what it's worth, which is not much, is the fact that youturned up A, prepared and B, during what could be an incredibly stressful process, right?
If that's me, and I've got Greg Phillinganes and David Paich there.

(33:13):
I'm brewing a stomach ulcer within 15 minutes while they're providing feedback.
The fact that you went, could do this forever or keep it coming.
That's why, aside from all your obvious talent, that's why you got the gig.
It's that approach to learning.
Would that be a fair thing to say?
Absolutely.

(33:34):
I hate to say that it's something like 90 % the hang and the personality and the kind ofperson that you want to work with and only
the rest the music, because it's really, you need both, absolutely.
But if you don't have the good feeling about someone when they walk in the room, how areyou going to spend six weeks with them in Europe?
That's right.
Honestly, that was a little bit more terrifying for me because I've I've been in bandswhere it's like certain things, just that one little thing about someone irks you or

(34:02):
something, even if you like them.
It's like, I can't be around that for for that long.
Usually it's not there's nothing like that.
Most musicians I've worked with have just been amazing.
You know, but you never know.
And I'm going, I'm about to walk into this, but Ron did give me the briefing before andhe's like, Luke keeps a cool group of people around him.
You're going to love everybody.

(34:22):
And same thing, talking to Luke, he was saying the same kind of thing.
He's like, I only want to work with people who are cool and it's going to be a fun, easyhang.
I've been doing this for 50 years.
At this point, it just has to be fun and easy.
I'm not doing this to try to...
drag us all through the mud and some excruciating process.
So I kind of knew that going in and I thought, I mean, I even thought going into that withthe two of them, I thought, even if they're telling me something that I don't relate to or

(34:53):
that I don't agree with, if they're telling me turn that knob this way or play this partthis way and I think that's stupid, which I'm not gonna, but even if it's like, okay,
okay, so what?
Like just.
Soak it up, learn it, and you don't have to apply it to anything else.
Just apply it here, try it out.

(35:13):
There's no reason.
There's absolutely nothing to lose by listening to someone who has 50 years of experienceexceeding exceptionally at something on a worldwide level.
There's no reason not to just listen to that and soak it up and enjoy it.
on one hand, that's, yeah, you have to go into it with that.

(35:35):
thought process on the end in addition to that or on the other hand, I would say that Ihad the good fortune of being a diehard sticks fan from the time I was three.
So what you're saying about that that nervousness, absolutely.
If I were sitting in a room with with people who I had been watching that closely, asclosely as so many musicians have been watching Toto for that long, it might have been

(36:00):
even more.
mean, I'm not going to say there was no like
Let's do this.
You know, there was that, but it was also, there's a little bit of advantage in that I waskind of a newer Toto fan.
mean, I've always liked Toto.
I've always loved Toto, but I've never known them on this intimate level.
I didn't know all the names of everybody in the band and things like that.

(36:21):
So I could kind of get away with not being as starstruck as certain other musicians thatthere would be that extra element for sure.
Yeah, no, absolutely.
No, I appreciate that great deal.
And then obviously, let's talk about your rig with Toto, which is, again, you're covering,as you said, synths and organ, a whole range of, and their own catalog is incredibly

(36:44):
diverse.
Tell us how you're covering that off.
Yeah, so, right, like I was saying, I mean, I'm on main stage all the way, I'll plug in.
I have two great keyboards on stage that have great sounds in them, but I use those soundsin the studio and...
Occasionally I'll use them live in some circumstances, but this is one where I don'treally need to.

(37:06):
It's just simplest to keep it all coming out of, like I said, that main stage output thatI could send through the interface.
Although, you know what?
I will add that you just, again, on a technical level, you can send audio from, forinstance, the Korg Kronos.
I could send audio of those internal sounds into channel strips in main stage and sendthem out.

(37:31):
through all of the effects or processing that I want in main stage.
But why add that extra level when I have what I need?
basically everything's coming out of main stage and most of the time learning the songswas creating all of the patches and figuring out how am I going to play this part and that

(37:52):
part at the same time?
What octave am I going to put it in?
What is going to be the logical way to format this so that
when this song comes in, when this part comes in during the verse and the bridge, and thenthis part comes in only during each chorus, where that can stay on this part of the
keyboard and that could stay on this part of the keyboard and then this keyboard can havesounds that are changing.

(38:16):
It's just kind of thinking through that logic, those things.
And that was most of the time learning the songs.
In Mainstage, it makes it pretty easy to put it on this keyboard or that keyboard andadjust the volumes or...
adjust the effects of each thing exactly how you need it.
we're transporting keyboards given a European too.

(38:38):
Were you able to keep the same keyboards around Europe or you were backlining in eachmajor city?
were able to transport, Yeah, they actually, we've been using my personal keyboards that Ihad and it was just simple as that way.
So yeah, I was able to practice on the keyboards that I was going to use just super

(38:58):
Stroke of luck, again, one of those universe things.
My Kronos had an issue on it and I had to fix it.
It had a power issue.
And I fixed it right before I got that text from Ron.
So it was like the day before we went to the airport or something crazy like that.

(39:22):
It was really, really close.
I brought the keyboard home.
turned it on, made sure it worked, okay, yeah.
I had that in a state of disrepair for years, thinking, yeah, I gotta get that fixed,because I was using another keyboard.
And I got it fixed right before I got this call and I needed it, so that was lucky.

(39:44):
And I will add, one other funny thing that happened when I showed up to David Page's housewas his audio engineer there.
before David and Greg came in the room, his audio engineer said, so you got a pretty goodidea of the songs, you got them worked up pretty well.
I'm going, yeah, yeah, could play them.
How about, do you know how to make sounds on your keyboard?

(40:07):
I mean, I'm using main stage, but yeah, I mean, there's sounds on the Kronos.
could work up sounds on there if I needed for something.
No, but I mean like horn sounds and synth sounds for the songs.
you have, what do you mean?
Like, did you make sounds for the songs?
Yeah, I made sounds for the songs.
What do you?
It's like you don't understand the question because I'm asking you something so simple.

(40:27):
I'm asking you if you prepared the sounds for the songs, but you're going, of course, butyou'll be surprised people come into these kinds of things, not having their sounds
prepared.
And it just blew my mind.
going, what do you, like I said, that's most of the, that's 50 % or more of the timeconsuming.

(40:50):
nature of learning songs.
mean, yeah, I could learn, but to actually learn how to do that with the organ and whathorn sound and layer them all together and get the right thing.
That's everything.
So what do mean people came in without, the, it was just a funny moment.
that's actually incredible to me, Dennis, that someone wouldn't turn up with their soundsorganized to David Pache's house.

(41:12):
Yeah.
And I, yeah, not to get into specifics or anything, but I mean, it's just people ingeneral.
Yeah, we'll do those kinds of things.
And as a keyboard player, that doesn't make any sense.
So no, I don't care.
is my only I'm not much of a advice person, but I will say that's pretty solid advice.
mean, someone gave that to me once.

(41:33):
Just be prepared.
If you're going to audition for something, if you want to if you want to be something ingeneral, even if you don't have the audition, prepare yourself for that audition and it's
going to come about anyway.
That was just a funny story that blew my mind.
Yeah, absolutely.
Thank you for sharing that then, Dennis.
You mentioned the Kronos a few times as a favorite MIDI controller type keyboard.

(41:54):
Are there any other keyboards you use from a MIDI controller perspective that you reallylike?
Yeah, I actually really like the Alesis Q88.
I use it all the time with the trip.
It's 200 bucks on Amazon.
so I've had it one time, I...

(42:15):
I bought one of them and I wasn't treating it very well and one of the keys startedgetting a little funky.
Okay, I got another one on Amazon for 200 bucks and it showed up at my house a day lateror something.
So that part is convenient in and of itself, but it's also so light that I mean I couldhold it up like this with one hand.
I could, it's very, very light and I don't feel funny asking my girlfriend, hey, can yougrab my keyboard?

(42:45):
And so that's really good, for non-weighted keys, I like the action as far as non-weightedgoes.
So I like non-weighted and weighted for each for its own function out, its own functions.
But I'll use that with the trip and that'll be my only keyboard I have to use all night.

(43:06):
Again, it's a MIDI controller, it doesn't have any sounds in it, but to use it with mainstage is easy and it has...
just a couple of buttons on it that I like that are all assignable, mean.
So that's good.
I could say some good things about that.
think my ideal keyboard would be some kind of cross between that and the Korg Kronos andthe Roland RD88.

(43:31):
And that's, by the way, that's the other one that I use is the Roland RD88.
Because I was about ask you, Dennis, what's your redundancy?
mean, if you're using your own Kronos and you repaired the power issue just before youwent on tour, I'm thinking...
There's no way Toto would just go, yeah, we'll just run with that and see how it goes.
What's your redundancy?
Yeah.
Well, so the redundancy is that I do like to, even if I'm using them as MIDI controllers,I do like to have keyboards on stage that have some sounds in them.

(44:00):
So for instance, with Toto, we have lines coming out of the Roland RD-88 and that keyboardhas some really easy
built-in sounds that can kind of just be generally used for anything and they're very easyto switch back and forth.
I also like that keyboard because it has onboard speakers which is something that usuallyonly comes with kind of home keyboard Casio type things like that things that aren't made

(44:29):
for professional use.
I've always wondered why are there no professional keyboards with onboard speakers?
Well, Roland made it with the RD88 and so anyway that one has some good onboard sounds andthere are two lines coming out of that
and at any moment I could just turn up the volume knob and that would be going to thefront of house PA as well.
So if anything, the entire computer died, which will never ever happen, that is there.

(44:54):
The way you put that out into the universe, Dennis, well done.
I'm sure we'll remember that you said that.
I'm really interested in an experience you've had.
You you've had so much success in what's so far been a relatively short career from theperspective of someone our age, but you've got such a...
wonderful career ahead of you as well.

(45:14):
But I'm also interested in the perspective of an experience you had that many of us willbe very curious about and that is going on American Idol.
And yeah, I'd love to hear your thoughts on what that was like for you and how you dealtwith that.
Yeah, it was strange.
would use that word to describe it.
In fact, I just made a Facebook post and when I was typing it out, I used the word strangeand went, that's it.

(45:39):
That was the feeling of that day.
It was strange.
It felt a little bit like living in a reality show or living in a movie or something.
It felt scripted.
The day felt scripted.
And that's not necessarily a bad thing, but it's just, it's weird.
know, growing up in LA, I've done the acting thing.

(46:01):
I've been on sets and I've played parts.
This felt like, it's...
It's like the only way I could describe it is it was like an amusement park ride.
It was like I was taken for some kind of ride where it feels like you're going in thefront door of the music industry with this big wide open thing saying, this is how you
become a star.

(46:22):
And you kind of don't believe it the whole time, but you fall for it and you go in andit's kind of like a claw machine.
It's like they call it the skill claw.
And I'm not saying you can't be good at a claw machine, but the skill part of it.
It's a misleading word.
Your skill is really at learning how to hack that particular machine or what it is thatthat machine's algorithm, how many times it'll let you win before you have to give it

(46:49):
another.
It's not what you think it is exactly.
So getting a little off track here, but it just felt like I was pushed a million miles anhour into a brick wall, or I was like...
launched a thousand miles an hour into a brick wall.
It felt like riding Superman at Six Flags except instead of that at the end, it was like,so the reason being because all of the Zoom calls and the day leading up to it and leading

(47:18):
up to the audition, it was like, I was constantly being encouraged.
Be yourself, bring them something they haven't seen before.
you like this?
you like that?
Let's talk about that.
You know what, when you perform this song,
really let them have it, really go all out with it.
And then when I got to the audition, it instantly became, wait a second, they're lookingfor someone to sit here and play a few chords and sing nicely.

(47:40):
Something that's very recognizable and easy to sing along with.
Okay, but that's not what I was gonna do.
So, all right, I mean, it was a strange day, because it did get me going a little bitafter that.
I'm going, what, I'm confused and all that, but.
In hindsight, could not have gone better.

(48:05):
I'm so happy that nothing more came of that.
I'm happy that I wasn't tied to whatever thing would have come from that and I didn't havemy name associated with, Dennis Atlas, the guy who made it from American Atlas.
It's it's not me.
And I'm not putting down anyone who that is and I'm sure there have been a lot of verytalented people.

(48:25):
saw many, many talented people there.
But it just didn't seem
It just didn't seem like what it's put out as on TV.
Yeah, it's it's like you just have to remember this is just some people's opinion thatisn't really even the judges.
I'm I'm not going to say anything.

(48:49):
It's just you know, they're looking for a specific thing.
I wasn't that specific thing or at least what I played the song choice that I did what Idid there wasn't that specific thing and
Honestly, thank God because I ended up having my own path and my own things.
well, I mean, and the reason I asked the question about it is, it's an interestingexperience that very few of us have and a lot of us have the experience of seeing it from

(49:15):
the outside.
So having the insight of what it can be like on the inside is, I think, instructive.
But also, Dennis, you strike us as a very optimistic and positive guy.
And I think that's driven a lot of your success.
So I'm really interested in the way that you've taken that and said, right, okay, well,here's an experience.
Here's what I've learned from it.
And okay, that was a thing.

(49:36):
And now I move on and focus on the next thing.
And I think many people can learn to deal with unusual or strange things as you put itthat way, but then keep focusing on the next opportunity that's ahead of us.
Yeah, thank you.
And yeah, I definitely think that that ultimately is what allowed

(49:58):
What has allowed me to get to this point, I agree with you, is that that isn't the onlytime in my life there's been this kind of roadblock and you just kind of go, okay, you
learn and you go around it.
But that's not to say just, I say this so no one's discouraged if they ever feel thatpessimism or if they ever feel, they ever don't feel like that at Happy Go Lucky Guy.
It was weird and it was hard for me that day.

(50:19):
I experienced emotions I hadn't experienced before.
It was difficult and I didn't really...
I had to really go through some thought and go, what's going on here?
It was weird.
And it was difficult and I was disappointed and it was hard to take.
And I was upset and I was angry and I had to understand that anger and go, why would theytell me that?

(50:44):
Do they really not like me?
Does it matter if they don't like me?
Are they just right about this thing or that thing?
And consider it from different angles.
I mean, it took a lot out of me.
Then you end up, it's like building a muscle.
like you break it down and then you build it back up and now you have all this confidenceagain.

(51:06):
it's definitely something I had to go through in order to understand.
Yeah, and there's no such thing as resilience if you don't experience those tougheremotions and those tougher feelings.
You wouldn't be resilient if you were happy all the time.
You would just be happy all the time.
that's right.
You're very instructive.
Thank you for sharing, Dennis.
No, excellent.
My pleasure.
Yeah, thank you, Dennis.
You did prompt me on an issue I meant to ask you about before I mean, auditioning forAmerican Idol, when you had the recommendation from Ron to to Luke for you to join Toto,

(51:34):
he's obviously had to have seen you play somewhere and sing somewhere.
So had he checked out your YouTube videos, or someone had sent him something, I can'timagine he just said yes, based on the recommendation alone, or I could be wrong.
Right, Luke, you're saying?
Yeah.
Yeah.
So Ron sent him a few of my YouTube videos and

(51:55):
I'm assuming there were some of the, what was that?
And they are amazing.
So that would make sense to me.
Yeah.
Well, thank you.
I appreciate that.
Yeah.
It was some of my more recent videos and yeah, thank God I kind of took some time to makethose this year.
I had to take, we've been talking a lot about the cover bands and the tribute bands.
And I want to add to that, that there was a very specific moment around this time lastyear where I said, what am I doing?

(52:25):
And I had some conversations with some people who cared about me and who could see where Iwas going.
And just kind of went, why am I spending so long on this?
For something that's ultimately a passion project kind of hobby, it's kind of like acrouton on the side salad at your fancy steakhouse.

(52:49):
And I realized I'm spending so long talking about this little crouton.
And how, look, honestly, they might be the greatest croutons in the whole world.
I mean, I'm very proud of those croutons.
And it might be one of the big reasons people came to that restaurant, but I'm tellingyou, as a whole restaurant, we have a whole menu.
And that's not the most important thing.

(53:12):
So I just kind of had this, this life turnaround thing.
And I stopped focusing so heavily on the tribute bands and I stopped taking a lot of thegigs.
And I had to make some pretty stark decisions that
could have been scary, I knew exactly why I was doing it where I was going.
And it created the space in my life to be able to take more time in the studio here andmake videos and practice my instruments in ways that I hadn't been able to and continue

(53:40):
writing the songs that I had kind of put on hold.
And I didn't realize I was putting on hold by spending all this time.
Being a Queen tribute band, being a Rush tribute band, being a Sticks tribute band.
hey, this tribute band's calling me.
this thing.
And then I have a trip gig on the weekend.
And it was like, whoa.
So I took some time, reorganized my life.

(54:00):
And I had that talk, actually, with the drummer of the trip at the time, who, like I wassaying earlier, he ended up retiring from that band.
But we had this talk, and he said, you know, a legacy band is going to pick you up.
And from there, your solo career can take off.
from there you might be able to make another band or people will hear about you and youcould do what you want to do instead of you trying to build this thing as an entrepreneur

(54:25):
from the ground up as a tribute band guy, then people are going to know you as the tributeband guy.
So he was very right and I'd heard that from some other people and I'd kind of had thatconclusion myself.
So it took a little bit of reframing.
But anyway, getting back to the YouTube videos, I ended up having more time to spend inthe studio and make videos and do things like that.
And thank God I did because

(54:47):
Again, I was prepared when that message came in to Ron and he said, I know a guy.
Here, let me look at his YouTube real quick.
Guess what was there?
Right in time, just in time for that was.
Yeah, perfect.
Those videos that were brand new that impressed Luke and David Page and those guys.

(55:08):
And so let's talk about your solo career, Dennis.
So tell us about what your passion is as far as your own writing and your own.
own music.
What floats your boat in that respect?
And I know you've released some work.
Just give us a summary of that.
Yeah.
So the first album that I released ever of my own music was in a band called Initiator.

(55:30):
that album was called Ice Garden.
For the few people who've heard it, they've all really loved it.
And it was something that we, learned a lot making the album and then I learned a lotputting it out and it just
Anyway, there was a whole learning curve to that, but I am very, very, very proud of whatwe did on that album, and it reflects in many ways what I'd like to do with the rest of my

(55:52):
career.
It extremely collaborative at the time, that band that was together.
The other co-writer and I, his name is Michael Whelan, we wrote those songs, some of them50-50, some songs I wrote entirely, some songs he wrote entirely, but every single one of
them I could have put my name on, and I'd happily take credit for it if I could.
And that to me is that kind of Lennon and McCartney, that Dennis DeYoung, Tommy Shaw, J.Y.

(56:15):
thing, that David Page, Steve Lukather thing, that when you have that band environment, itjust, really creates something special.
And we had that on that album, that initiator album, Ice Garden.
Really, I would love to play that album at concert.
I'd happily be stuck playing any of those songs live every show for the rest of my life.

(56:38):
I mean, I'd be happy to do that.
So.
That was the first one.
And then when that band kind of went, everyone went their separate ways, I ended up makinga solo album called My Magical Wonderland.
And on that one, I thought, okay, now is my chance.
I may as well take this opportunity.
And it was right around 2020 and I had a lot of time at home.

(57:01):
And I took a lot of songs that I had already been writing and I had this concept of thisalbum and I went, I'm gonna finally make this.
And you know what I'm gonna do?
I'm gonna play every instrument on it.
No excuses.
I'm just gonna play it all.
So I ended up playing every song, I mean playing every instrument on that album, MyMagical Wonderland.
And the good news is now that album is getting remixed.

(57:25):
And a little bit more than remixed, we're actually, I've been adding in some extrainstrumentation and things like that to that album because a few years have gone by and I
just started having some more ideas and
thought, you know what, we can make the sound better and I will actually be having someoneelse do the final mix.
So I've gotten it to a certain point and then I mixed it initially and I'm a songwriterfirst, I would say, and a instrumentalist singer after that.

(57:53):
And then way down there somewhere, I could kind of get by with some audio engineer mixingstuff just because I kind of know how to do it.
And so I wanted to have someone who really knows how to do that.
So that album is now being remixed, but that original album is still out.
It's called My Magical Wonderland.
Again, very, very happy and proud of how that came out.

(58:13):
Different thing because again, it was all a very solo artist kind of a creation.
Very, very personal.
so that was the next one.
And I also was involved with an album by a band called Lufé, L-U-F-E-H.
This was put together by a drummer of that same name, Luffy, who is from Brazil.

(58:36):
And those guys had the whole album already written and then came to me to just to sing onit.
And that's another one of those things that I'd happily put my name on it.
I mean, I wrote one bridge of one song because they didn't have the lyrics and melody forit yet.
That was it.
But really, essentially, the whole album was completely written and done before I gotthere.

(58:57):
They just handed me the lyrics and the melodies and said,
hear sing this.
And I love that band and that album.
that's, that's the, those are the three albums I've put out by different under differentartists names, but that album is called luggage falling down.
Another really just really proud and happy with how that all turned out.

(59:19):
Perfect.
And we'll definitely be linking to all three of those.
And yeah, look,
Dennis's solo album is more than worth listening to.
It's amazing.
I can only imagine how much better even again it'll be with the remix.
So that's exciting.
Yeah.
So we'll be linking to all that.
Yeah, it'll be very fun.
And then we want to some of our standard questions, Dennis, and one of them is tag a Cableplayer.

(59:39):
So is there a Cable player out there that you admire or have been inspired by that youwould love to hear their story?
Absolutely.
Now I'm just trying to choose.
Yeah, you know what?
I'm gonna say has has Lawrence Gowan been on this?
No.
On this?
No?
Lawrence Gowan is one of them for me.

(01:00:00):
I just I love I love the way I love hearing that guy talk to.
He's very fun to listen to in interviews and all of that.
he's just a fantastic piano player, great songwriter and singer and everything.
Just good guy.
And he's been there for me too.
We've talked a little bit over the years because I've been such a huge fan all this timeand

(01:00:22):
He's been a good supporter.
So Dennis, one question that we ask all our guests and they all hate it, which is what areyour top five, cannot live without, Desert Island discs, the five albums you would have to
take with you on that Desert Island?
Okay.
I'm going to give you eight and that's all I can do.

(01:00:43):
I can't narrow it down.
Cheating.
I can't narrow it down anymore.
I was thinking about this.
There's no way there's eight albums and it's kind of.
OK, there's eight albums and I already created the arbitrary rule for myself that there'sonly one album per band.

(01:01:05):
Otherwise, it would be like these 10 sticks albums, these 14 Dream Theater albums.
OK, so we're going to do one album per band and we got it down to eight.
In no particular order, we're going to go with.
The Odyssey by Symphony X, A Night at the Opera, obviously by Queen, should be oneverybody's list.

(01:01:30):
Point of No Return by Kansas, The Mountain by Symphony, by Haken, I already said SymphonyX, The Mountain by Haken, this is, how am I supposed to choose one Styx album?
I'm just, I'm gonna go with Cyclorama by Styx.
Because not enough people have heard that album, and because it has,
one of my all-time favorite songs on it and it's just a brilliant album.

(01:01:50):
Brain Salad Surgery by Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Exhale by Thousand Foot Crutch, probablythe most different than all of the rest of the albums on this list.
We'll do Awake by Dream Theater.
that's fantastic.
Thank you.
Thank you, Dennis.
Now, it might sound a little immodest, but see, I would add to that Ice Garden byInitiator and Luggage Falling Down by Luffy.

(01:02:13):
Now, we'll see when the remix is out of the new album.
That's right.
You know, those were all banned.
So I'll say a band albums.
got to do it.
You're allowed to do that.
That's absolutely fine.
Can I ask a question, Dennis?
Why don't you like prog rock?
It's like it's funny you ask that question because it's I've been this prog guy my wholelife and always just been so into it.

(01:02:39):
But it's funny because I don't I don't like it as a genre.
I like
music that doesn't...
I love one thing, it doesn't have to be this way, but one thing that I love is music thatis really eclectic and that doesn't have to be limited by genre.
I like when a song is written and it was not with the consideration of is it this genre oris it that genre?

(01:03:04):
If it's not this then it can't go in the song.
I just like what it's expressed naturally and people are very dynamic beings so Iappreciate when something is written and
transcends genre and I think prog rock tends to do that and then someone named it a genre,prog rock.
And then at some point some of the isms of prog rock, some of the prog isms have leakedits way into more more prog bands and then it did become a genre and it became a style.

(01:03:34):
But ultimately I just, love music that transcends style.
always, when we put out the Initiator album I refused.
to have it put under the label Prog Rock, I said that we're an adventure band.
We're adventure, that's our genre.
And then I think when I put out the My Magical Wonderland album, I said, we're genrefluid.
And I've always tried to come up with other things, but every band that I love is, most ofthe bands that I love are Prog Rock, so that's why.

(01:04:00):
Yeah, and look, you wouldn't be uncommon among keyboard players.
It's wonderful music if you love to get in and hear those different sounds.
And you're quite right, Dennis.
Pretty much every genre of music was named retrospectively after the sounds came out.
And prog rock's certainly no exception.
Now we'd love to finish off our podcast with what we call the Quick Fire 10.

(01:04:21):
So we ask 10 questions, 10 short answers, first thing that comes into your mind, or asquickly as you can recall it.
And I'll kick us off.
The first album that you ever heard?
Like an album that I listened to all the way through?
Yeah, can answer that one.
Yeah.
my God.
That's a really hard one.

(01:04:44):
No one's ever asked me that.
Probably at Night at the Opera.
Not necessarily knowingly, but I'm sure my dad was cranking out every song in order on hissurround sound disc and I was listening to it and very familiar with it.
Possibly even before Sticks or before Grand Illusion.
It's tough.
Or Pet Sounds possibly.

(01:05:06):
Well, still, both them are great.
That is a really hard question.
can't remember.
No problems.
What's your most important pre-gig ritual?
Dennis, what do you need to do before you go on stage?
Pre-gig ritual?
Probably just some random screaming and just getting the voice ready.
Well, actually, in Toto has a very...

(01:05:28):
When it comes to Toto, we have a very important pre-game ritual, which is we all huddle upand this is really beautiful to see on the first night.
There's a little prayer.
And just a strong intention of the seven of us or with the tour manager, productionmanager will be there sometimes.
So it'll be the eight or nine of us and we'll just really get in the same head spacetogether and ready to get on stage as a band of brothers.

(01:05:50):
That's really important.
That's awesome.
That's awesome to hear.
Now you mentioned in the interview that you kind of knew early on you wanted to be a rockstar, but if you hadn't been a professional musician, what...
would you think you would have done?
There's no second answer.
That's fine.
You don't get to.
You get to be a rock star.
I would have been a professional roller coaster rider.

(01:06:12):
Yeah.
I would have been a professional going to amusement parks guy.
Yeah.
Free it.
Love it.
Transpose button or adjust on the fly, Dennis?
I would love to say adjust on the fly because that sounds cooler.
And that's what Greg filling games would do.
But if I'm going with the truth of what I actually do, it's the transpose button.

(01:06:35):
Yeah.
Yeah, cool.
What's the favorite gig you've ever done?
Well, this month I played the Hollywood Bowl.
That was pretty cool with Toto.
So that was one of the favorites.
Let's go with that.
Yeah.
And favorite city you've played, if that's possible.
Luxembourg was really cool.
And Madrid.

(01:06:56):
I can't give single answers.
Man, I got to work on that.
Madrid was really cool with Toto as well.
That was great.
Now I reckon this next question is perfect for a guy who's done a bit of work in coverbands and tribute bands.
Name a song that you used to love but you've now played it to death.
man.

(01:07:17):
I would say Bohemian Rhapsody, but I can never stop loving that song.
It just...
I might get tired of playing it, but I don't get tired of the song.
It's still phenomenal.
So that might not be the best answer.
No, that's an answer.
That's good.
And your favorite music documentary or movie, Dennis, do you have one?
Documentary movie.

(01:07:38):
You know, I'm just going to go ahead and give the same answer.
Bohemian Rhapsody.
Yeah.
Well, great movie.
Yeah.
It's a really great movie.
Name one thing that you would like to see invented.
that would make your life as a keyboard player easier?
I have exactly that invention and I'm going to work on building it.

(01:07:59):
It's a very particular kind of spinning keyboard that's a certain cross between whatLawrence Gowan has and what Jordan Rudis has and also what the guys like Tom Brizlin or
Derek Sherinian have.
So you mix those things together and like I said it has to be a cross between a Q88, aRoland

(01:08:21):
RD88 and Korg Kronos.
So I just got to get Elise's Korg and Roland on the phone with each other and they couldfigure that out.
But there's a very particular keyboard model I'm going for with that.
All right, the Atlas rig it'll be called.
It's your trademark, Dennis, all yours.
That's right.
You've got proof.
And your favorite non-musical activity hobby, what keeps you sane outside of music?

(01:08:44):
You said I'm sane.
What keeps me sane outside of music?
Yeah, maybe you don't to be saying, you know what?
I will say this actually on the road, especially this became important.
Just going to the gym, lifting weights a little bit.
I mean, it doesn't have to be extreme, but doing something physical that takes your mindout of that and just gets you back onto being a human being and taking care of your body.

(01:09:09):
That's really important.
So any kind of physical, physical exercise for me, for me, it's not so much cardio as muchas it is like some kind of muscle building.
Yeah.
Thank you, Dennis.
Look, we need to wrap it up there.
I cannot thank you enough.
We were thrilled to reach out to you.
Like many people, we've seen your amazing videos and that's why, obviously, and I alsohappen to be a major Toto fan, but it's just amazing to see your career today.

(01:09:35):
As Paul mentioned, you've got many, many more years of that career to go and we just can'twait to see where it goes.
But it's been a privilege to speak with you and definitely would like to keep in touch.
Thank you so much.
my pleasure.
Thank you guys so much for having me.
This has been great.

(01:09:58):
And there we have it.
I hope you enjoyed that.
Paul, as we said at the start of the show, what a positive guy who's deservedly got thesuccess he has.
totally.
I loved meeting and chatting to Denison.
He's the sort of chap that I would go out of my way to hang out with.
Just a really nice fella.
Yeah, no, absolutely.
So I've got everything crossed for a Toto tour in 2025.

(01:10:21):
I know they haven't announced that yet, but I'm hoping they will.
And we'd love to follow up with Dennis, but yeah, huge thanks to him for his time.
It was a really great chat.
And we also, we say it every episode, but we mean it.
also appreciate your time listening or watching.
It does mean a huge amount and that's why we continue to grow.
And it inspires us to keep on doing the do, which is great.

(01:10:43):
So yes, a big thanks to you.
We will be back in a couple of weeks, but I do want to give a shout out to our
Gold and Silver supporters.
I'll start with Mr.
Dewey Evans from the lovely country of Wales in the UK.
Dewey's actually coming on a live stream in the next week or so.
So we're excited to have him on board and he's got some really fascinating stories as aplayer and as an author, which we'll talk about.

(01:11:08):
thank you, yeah, I forgot about the live stream.
We haven't done one in a while.
I'm excited for it.
love the live streams.
Yeah, it should be good.
So I'm really excited about that.
So thank you, Dewey, for your ongoing support.
Mike at midnightmastering.com.
Now I swear this is not, we're going to give every sponsor a special episode, but Mike,aside from being a master of mixing and mastering, is also an amazing musician in his own

(01:11:34):
right.
And him and another person, Steve Gregory and I, were in the world's first virtual band inthe 1990s.
And we're doing a special episode with those two to reminisce on the early days of theinternet.
and jamming over the internet.
So I'm looking forward to having Mike and Steve on the show also in the next couple ofweeks.
Now I haven't invited you to that one Paul yet.

(01:11:56):
We'll have to talk about that, but.
Right, well, maybe I don't qualify to go You're not nerdy enough.
You're not nerdy Well, I don't recall ever being in a virtual band, yeah, so that's, Iknow a little bit about your virtual band, but not a lot.
So I'm looking forward to learning about it.
how you did it and what you did, especially back in the 90s.

(01:12:17):
Yes, all those years ago.
Crazy.
That's going to be cool.
Yeah.
big shout out to Midnightmastering.com.
They've been an ongoing supporter.
And I mean what I say, mean, Mike's been a friend for many years, but I have used him fortwo of my albums and cannot recommend him highly enough.
So, and then Tammy from Tammy's Musical Studio.
Tammy's also been a wonderful supporter over long period of time.

(01:12:39):
Thank you, Tammy.
And last but not least, and you heard it mentioned in the body of the interview, themusicplayer.com forums.
It's just amazing how many keyboard players are on there that are mixing and mingling withsome of those that we admire.
So it definitely recommend checking out the keyboard corner on musicplayer.com forums.
It's a wonderful community musicplayer.com.

(01:13:00):
I've been a member there for, think nine years and you for a lot longer than that.
I'm a baby compared to you.
How long?
Since 2001, I think it is so 23 years.
Yeah.
Wow, that's incredible.
We nearly got back to the 1990s again.
We should do a 1990s themed podcast.
Yeah, absolutely.
There's too many 80s bands, not enough 90s keyboard bands.

(01:13:21):
Yeah, I'm not going to let you sign off without mentioning my shirt.
please, yeah, tell us about this amazing shirt because I did notice it.
Well, because I have a green screen here and look what my shirt can do.
This is incredible.
But this is the merch from my band, the latest.
So this should say Echoes of Pink Floyd, but you can't see the Echoes because it's green.

(01:13:45):
No, can see through you.
It's amazing.
I didn't think of that when I put the shirt on.
And I hadn't clicked that it was your own band shirt.
It's a stellar design.
Yeah, great.
Love it.
It looks very odd, doesn't it?
Yeah.
There you go.
That was really self-indulgent.
But Joe Mascara, who might be the only person still listening, I hope you enjoyed that.
Yeah, that's right.
Yes.

(01:14:05):
So thank you, Joe and anyone else silly enough to still be listening.
We appreciate it.
And we'll be back in a couple of weeks.
In the meantime, keep on playing.