Reggie: Tell us about the new CD Vibrate.   

Phil: I didn't really start writing for this. I had started writing some songs and put them aside. I was sitting with Steve Lukather one night drinking some cocktails listening to the songs and he asked me what I was going to do with them. I said "do a solo album one day". He said "it sounds like you've got the album right here". Then I started listening to it like that. I put those demos which were fairly well produced onto Itunes which I love. I put my Ipod onto shuffle to get a feel for the songs, to get a vibe as to where the album was at. I quickly wrote three more songs which polished up the 12 and set about recording. I want to let people know there is a variation of styles on this record. You can always start with an album and go heavier but it's very difficult to go heavy and then get lighter. What I wanted to with this record was present different styles that I would like to work in. At some point in the future I'd like to hub out and experiment more with some of those things. That's why it touches on different styles.     

Reggie: How was Steve Lukather involved?   

Phil: Steve has always been inspirational to me. Both musically and as a friend. I'd like to think I may have been the same to him. We definitely share many of the same ideas. Steve's involvement was very much as a bit of a mentor. I would always run ideas by him. I think I played him all of the demos. He has always been really encouraging. As far as the day to day involvement he was really busy, on the road for much of the time.

Reggie: There are many Steve Lukather connections on the CD. The Toto Boys David Paich, Simon Phillips, Steve Porcaro, Gregg Bissonette, Jeff Babko and Steve's son Trevor.  

 

Phil: Absolutely. Simon has been a dear friend for a long time and I think the world of him. And with Gregg they're my two favorite drummers. Gregg and I played together in Lukes' band. Gregg is the greatest guy to have on the road. Of course I wanted to have Simon do some playing. Simon and I do a lot of work together. Sometimes with Toto and sometimes outside. So I asked him to do it and he said yes. I was thrilled to bits! And Gregg as well! I wanted Gregg to play on certain tracks to get that feel that Gregg has. We were recording all the drum tracks at Simons' studio Phantom. Dave Paich was walking around because inbetween we were doing some overdubs for Totos' new record. Dave said "Hey man, I really like that stuff if you want me to play the pianos set up. It sounds great"! He wanted to play on a couple of tracks so when no one was doing anything he did some playing on it. Trevor Lukather played some guitar on it too. Steve and Trevor have a great relationship with each other. They're like friends. There's a father/son boundary that doesn't exist with them. They hang like bros. I've produced three records for Trevor. Trev, Hydra and one where he kinda got sidetracked doing the Lindsey Lohan thing. We spent a lot of time in the studio together. He's a great kid. Of course I wanted to have Trev play on it. I had some great people play on my record and I'm very proud of it.    

Reggie: Is the Vibrate CD available and how can people get it?

Phil: Absolutely it's available. Go to the website philsoussan.com or go to myspace.com/philsoussan and I will personally autograph it. I encourage people to go to philsoussan.com and go to the contacts page so I can stay in contact with people. It's also available at cdbaby.com and I'm trying to get some distribution in Europe,South America and the Far East.

Reggie: Tell us about the Luke album.   

Phil:The Luke album I'm really proud of. I love that album and I love that time. That was a really special time. There were a lot of things going on. Steve and I had sat around and talked about doing this record. This was going to focus on everything that was going on. We were both going through the same kinda things. It was one of those moments where two people were on the same page. It just happened so fast. The writing, the songs. It just came together. When two people are thinking in the same direction it just happens. We probably talked about for three or four years before it happened.     

Reggie: How did the Luke Tour go (Steve Lukather, Phil Soussan, Gregg Bissonette, Brett Tuggle)?

  

Phil: The best live Tour EVER! The most fun I've ever had on the road. I think I speak for everybody. Gregg too. Luke too. It was like the first tour I ever did. It was an absolute blast hanging out on the bus. Everything was a joke. Everything was funny. Even the bad things were funny. After we'd played the shows we'd hang out in these clubs. We'd jump up on stage and play Beatles songs and get everybody singing along. A tour that knew no boudaries.

Reggie: What about the Odd Couple Tour (Steve Lukather, Edgar Winter, Phil Soussan, Gary Ferguson)?  

Phil: That was fun too. That had it's definite moments. It was a little stressful to start with. We had one rehearsal. It lasted about two hours. I didn't realize how tight some of those parts, especially on Edgars' stuff were. How etched in stone they were. They were very specific. I went into it with the attitude that if you don't know a lot of that music that you kind of find your feet and then you improvise and keep it loose. Loose works great sometimes. But with Edgar that isn't how he structured his music. He was very specific. That isn't in ANY way a criticism. That's just how music is. Once I was in that rehearsal I went "Oh man, I've got a lot of work to do". I had to specifically learn every little fill. So that first show was a bit of a nail biter but after that it was great. It was in Paris. It went really,really well. The second show was in the same place and we really started having fun with it. We had a great time. Edgar is a really fun guy to hang with. He's nocturnal. He stays awake all night and listens to all kinds of Jazz. We stayed up on the bus and listened to music I wouldn't normally listen too.      

Reggie: There seems to be a real tight knit musical community. I've seen you, Nuno Bettencourt (Extreme) & Toss Panos (Mike Landau, Steve Vai) at a Toto show. I've seen Toss & Edgar Winter at a Doves of Fire show & I've seen Brett Tuggle at a Lukather/Larry Carlton show. Tell us about this musical family.

Phil: In this business you come across a lot of musicians. It's a very small world. It's incestuous. Everybody knows everybody. Everybody plays with everybody. You very soon find out who your bonds are with. Those bonds tend to be very strong. But what's wonderful about that is you never know what's coming around the corner. I may end up working with Brett Tuggle or Nuno. Not to say that I'm working with Nuno but you never know. You establish relationships and then you follow relationships. Then you decide to do something together. You say maybe we should jam together or maybe we should write together. Sometimes that turns into a project.

Reggie: You help set up a benefit for you're friend Randy Castillo (drummer for Ozzy/Motley Crue who passed away from cancer) where you, Luke, Simon Phillips & Kenny Arronoff (John Mellancamp, Melissa Etheridge, Session Ace) S.L.A.P played. Tell us about that.  

Phil: It was put together by Matt Sorum (Guns 'n' Roses, Velvet Revolver), Todd Singerman & myself. Those were the most active people. Unfortunatley we had a legal problem. I had always wanted to tape that. I thought it would be a great way to put up a tribute to Randy who was my best friend. But after an almost two year legal battle we basically won the case. Then it took me 7 or 8 months to get all the releases from all the artists involved. The video's gone to the editing company and they should have a finished edit in March.     

Reggie: What was it like to play with two monster drummers in Simon & Arronoff? Also what about having Steven Tyler show up to play? 

Phil: We rehearsed for it. Kenny was rehearsing with Melissa Etheridge and we managed to sneak into her studio and bang out a couple of songs. Luke turned to me and said "Why don't you sing one?" Then I said "why don't you sing one?" Luke said "I'm a guitar player, I don't want to sing." So I said "I'll sing one, you sing two." It was a trip playing with two drummers. I didn't know which way to turn. It was a fun thing to do. I wasn't sure if Steve Tyler was going to show up or not. Matt Sorum spoke to him and said he was coming and then he showed up.

Reggie: How did the track After you've gone for Toto's Mindfields album come about? 

   

Phil: We decided to do some writing before Mindfields. Typically we would get together and Steve would come over for half an hour. With Luke it happens very, very fast. There's none of this sitting around for three hours. For some reason there's a chemistry between us. It's happened every time we've written a song together. We get together and within a half an hour we've got something. He slammed down some acoustic guitar and we warbled around with some melodies and then I went off and did an arrangement. Then I played it for him and he liked it and I worked on it awhile and then we did a demo.     

Reggie: Was the intention for it to be a Toto song a Luke song or something else?  

Phil: I think it was to write specificaly for Toto because Steve said "we should write a song for the band".     

Reggie: Is there a different mind set when you're writing  a Toto song as opposed to a solo song? Or are you just writing good music? 
 
Phil: I think we're writing good music. There is a certain mind set. But you don't know what's gonna come out and then when it comes out it becomes apparent what it's meant for. We also wrote a song for Bernard Fowler (Rolling Stones/Nickelbag).

Reggie: You and Luke have played on some of those pretty cool Bob Kulick & other tribute records recently. How do those work? Are you guys in the studio together for those?   

Phil: One of them we were all in the studio together. I think it was the Alice Cooper Tribute for the song Welcome to my nightmare. That was a cool track. That was with Ronnie James Dio but he layed his track down later. With the other ones it's usually the drummer and I working out the arrangements and getting the parts down.   

Reggie: It usually doesn't take Luke long to lay his stuff down. 

Phil: No, you're right it doesn't take him long at all.        

Reggie: How did you and Luke meet?   

Phil: We met at the Lexington Queen in Tokyo. it's where all the people who aren't Japanese go hang out and where all the people who are Japanese hang out to see all the people who aren't Japanese. I was over there with Ozzy in I think 1986 on the Ultimate Sin Tour. Luke was over there with Jeff Beck & Carlos Santana. So we were in the Lexington Queen and this guy comes bouncing in the room. Then I realized it was Steve. I had been a big fan of his. I had been in a band called Wildlife (Chris & Steve Overland with Simon Kirke) that used to idolize Steve.

Reggie: You've done some engineering work on the new Toto CD Falling  in between. What do you think of it?  

Phil: It's great. I like it. I've liked every Toto album they've done. There's always been a sound or flow to it. This has the same characteristics. It definetley has a theme. It's got a little bit more of a progressive thing going through it. But there's those vocal lines, those harmonies. It got those things that they do. It's still got that "Toto sound" to it. I was hoping to do some more work on it. The way it started was I produced a track they used in Japan a duet with a band called Tokyo. That came about really well. So they said would you like to help us record the new record? So I said sure. So they said we're going Simons' studio so we can start writing. So as they were writing they were putting down ideas. So the ideas as is very often the case became the album. So it was just going down as it was being written. So there were times when I came in and helped here and there. So I did a lot less than I would have liked to have done. But I can't do enough for those guys. I love being in the studio with them and I love being around them. I have a lot of respect for them. It's always a lot of fun too. Lots of laughs!

Check out Phil's fabulous album Vibrate at the sessions section.