If the pandemic has done anything good, it’s given people a chance to do things they had been wanting to do. Guitarist Joel Hoekstra had already begun his latest album, Running Games, with his Joel Hoekstra’s 13 project prior to lockdown but with touring on hold, it freed him up to really dig in and give the record all of his attention. Featuring the lineup of musicians that took part in the band’s debut album – vocalist Russell Allen, bass player Tony Franklin, drummer Vinny Appice, keyboard player Derek Sherinian and singer Jeff Scott Soto – the album shines like the truest rock albums of yesterday.
Hoekstra, a member of Whitesnake since 2014, wanted to give his latest album, out on February 12th, a full hands-on approach. He wrote the lyrics and the melodies, ran his fingers through some killer guitar solos, gave the production side his undivided attention and ran the whole show pretty much virtually. With songs like “I’m Gonna Lose It,” “Finish Line” and “Take What’s Mine,” the tracks soar and zoom across the room, hitting all the best things about hard rock with a melodic twist.
For a kid who could barely move onstage when he first joined a band, Hoekstra certainly found his stage presence in the long run, becoming known for his electric smile and six-string theatrics. But in the beginning, well, not so much. His first gig in high school, “I was so terrified and nervous that I literally couldn’t move,” Hoekstra told me in a Glide interview in 2011. But it wouldn’t take long before he was getting attention for something other than his shyness. His first band, Outcry, played a mixture of their own songs and covers of bands like Dokken and Stryper.
The son of classical musicians, Hoekstra played cello and piano before being blindsided by Angus Young. “I got an Electra-Westone and that was the first guitar. It was red with just awful body style, just hideously eighties (laughs). I sold it after I played for a year and I really wish I still had that guitar. But I used to plug into my home stereo, that’s how old school it was (laughs). They didn’t buy me an amp, I just plugged that guitar right into my home stereo and ended up blowing the speakers and everything, I’d crank it up so loud.” The first song he learned to play was “Paranoid” by Black Sabbath.
Thirty-plus years later, Hoekstra has found and kept his niche in hard rock, although with a slight detour touring with Cher. Glide spoke with Hoekstra last week about his new album, being a songwriter and his return to teaching guitar.
It’s been a long time since we last spoke so other than the new record, what other projects are you still involved with?
Well, I’m still actively a part of Whitesnake and Trans Siberian Orchestra, when and if we get back to touring and being out there, or if David wants to do some recording. We’re just all kind of waiting to see what the plan is there. Then in terms of other projects, the album obviously, but I just turned in the riffs to Michael Sweet for a project I’m doing with him and Nathan James. Looking forward to seeing what Michael does with those. My role with that is to come up with the guitar riffs. Then a multitude of quarantine videos during this time. I’ve got a cool one that should be out fairly soon. Teaching a ton, doing cameos, doing sessions for people, writing with people, also writing with my friend Jim Peterik for an album he is producing right now. Just busy, busy.
I understand that you had your hand in everything about the new record
Yeah, with these albums, that’s what’s different than being a part of a band. Like with this other project, I contributed just the guitar riffs but it’s much different when you’re writing all the guitar riffs and the vocal melodies and the lyrics and everything and then being the person that gets to call the shots on the mix, etc. So having that opportunity for me is a great thing. It’s just fun to be the boss every once in a while (laughs).
And not stressful?
No, I would say not stressful at all. For me, I make these for the enjoyment of it and the artistic outlet and just part of my life story to be able to get it out there, so someday, hopefully, I’ll be remembered as more than just a guy who had some gigs (laughs).
In regards to the songs on Running Games, how fully formed were they when you presented them to the other guys?
So what Vinny Appice and Tony Franklin get is me playing the riffs on guitar and me playing the vocal melody on guitar over the top, like I’m playing a solo. So that’s how they recorded. Typically, I have chorus lyrics already but after they get done I write all the lyrics to those melodies. And then I laid down a guide vocal for Russell. Russell hears a track of me singing the album and then he just sings it a whole lot better than me. From there, everybody does their thing. Jeff Scott Soto added the background vocals to Russell, masterfully so, and Derek Sherinian was amazing on keys, and I had some various guests on the record as well. But that’s how it all comes together. Then at that point in time, I lay down my real guitar tracks.
Does Russell get more involved in the songwriting, maybe tweak the songs?
I give him a lyric sheet and the guide vocal and then everybody is pretty much free to do their own thing with it. It’s not like it’s Mozart where it’s written down in music and I’m saying, “It has to be note for note!” So if there’s things that Russ wants to rephrase or whatever, he’s more than welcome, and he does that quite a bit. Singers have a certain way that they want to phrase and breathe, so far be it for me to tell them no on something like that. And same with really everybody. That’s where they get their artistic expression involved in this, is just I pretty much stay out of their hair with the production. Whatever Vinny plays is what you hear.
How far back does songwriting go with you?
I’ve been doing that for my bands ever since I was a teenager so it goes a long way back for me. It usually happens pretty easily, especially something like this where I’m looking to just kind of write straight-ahead rock songs. I’m not really looking to write these confusing progressive songs or anything. It’s a fairly simple process and for me it’s more about just finding cool stuff to listen to that rocks. I’m not really looking to confuse anybody with it.
That being said, how autobiographical do you get on this record?
It all ties in to me one way or another but I like to keep things vague enough that people can interpret and find their own meaning and attachments to the songs. I don’t like it to be like, “Hey, here’s the details of this particular situation.” It’s more like, “Hey, here’s the situation,” and then people can usually find something in their own life to relate to that.
I’ve heard you were blown away when you first heard Angus Young playing guitar but who blew you away in terms of lyrics early on?
You know, that’s a hard thing to answer. Probably the same, AC/DC, just the rocking stuff. I mean, I was very much into the heavy metal/hard rock when I started. I grew up listening to AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Ozzy, Iron Maiden, Scorpions – that’s the early list (laughs). Then I’d say a band like Rush and Neil Peart’s, I guess, more intelligent lyrics. I definitely enjoyed Yes. I think bands that are a little mellower and more melodic, like Boston and Foreigner and Journey, I liked all those bands as well. So anything that fit into that land of melodic hard rock, and it could go heavier or lighter with me, it didn’t really matter, just as long as it rocked and had some melody.
You’re working with the same musicians again that you worked with on the first Joel Hoekstra’s 13 album. Who do you go back with the longest?
That’s a good question. Tony Franklin is really the one who got things rolling, cause we did the VHF project together. I’m not sure who I actually met physically in person the first out of these people but probably Jeff Scott Soto, if I had to guess. But Tony is who got it started. I said I wanted to do a straight-ahead album where I write everything and have it sound like a band but I want to do everything and give it a project name. So I asked him who to use as a drummer and he recommended Vinny. And Russell Allen was joining TSO at the time and I thought, here’s the perfect vocalist. Derek Sherinian, of course, is a no-brainer, he’s just perfect with everything. He has great sounds and he gives me the perfect foil, as far as a soloist, somebody who can rip and I can give solo sections to outside of myself to balance out the record in that department. Jeff Scott Soto sang some lead on the first one but on this particular one it’s just the backgrounds. I mean, Jeff has a lot of projects and a flourishing solo career and everything so he kind of needed another project like a hole in the head (laughs). But he’s a good friend of mine so he, thankfully, helped me out with this. He’s amazing at singing backgrounds and he actually does change the sound of the record quite a bit and brought it to another level.
This was recorded last year?
Where it stood when Covid hit was Vinny was done, Tony was done, Russell had sung three of the songs but the guide vocal was already done for them all. Everything was written so basically, post-Covid, was Russell singing ten songs, me doing the guitars, getting Derek on there and getting Jeff on there, then getting it mixed and the artwork done, etc. So all that stuff kind of happened since Covid hit. The silver lining is it did actually help. It freed up my schedule and everybody else enough that we could finally coordinate and get this done.
Which song would you say changed the most from its original conception to its final recorded version?
That’s a tough one. I don’t know, I mean, I’d say the best answer I could give you is that I had all the rocker songs down and had named the album Running Games, because that seemed to be the theme lyrically of everything. Then I ended up writing the title track at the last minute and going, You know, this needs closure, something to tie it all together and something that’s a little bit more of a cool vibe change at the very end of the album. That’s when I wrote “Running Games,” after the fact. Even though that’s not really answering your question, it’s something kind of interesting, I guess, in terms of the album itself and that something was added last-minute.
“I’m Gonna Lose It” is a really cool song. Which part came first?
I pretty much always write a chorus out but I feel like that one, maybe that intro riff outside of that. I typically write all the riffs in one shot and it comes together pretty quickly. I think I came up with that out at Hook City at the Whitesnake studio. You know, we tend to have times where I’m just playing guitar and noodling around and it puts me in a creative headspace out there. So not that it was for Whitesnake but most of these I can remember writing backstage with Whitesnake. I have a pretty decent memory of where I came up with each of the riffs. Usually I was on tour. When I tell the story it sounds like a geography lesson (laughs).
Which guitars did you use primarily recording these songs?
I just used my Goldtop Les Paul for the whole record. Then any clean stuff I used a Fender Strat and anything where you hear sustainer, where notes just kind of keep ringing, and there’s a lot of that in “How Do You,” that’s my Jackson PC1.
When you were first learning to play guitar, what was the hardest thing for you to get the hang of?
I think it was just hardest to get to where I am, just hanging with it that long. It was lots of little steps along the way to finally arrive at the point I’m at. It’s always a struggle but yet at the same time it’s not; it’s just a journey to build a career and try and spend your life playing an instrument. I can’t say there’s any one thing that stands out but it’s just constant effort.
As a kid, after discovering Angus, were you trying to emulate him onstage?
No, I mean, I had such bad stage fright. I started playing when I was a kid and I couldn’t even move my feet onstage so I was definitely not doing any stage stuff. I was 5’4 with short hair so trust me, I was the guy in my local scene where they’re like, “Yeah, that guy is really good but he’s got the worst image ever, he’s got no stage presence whatsoever.” (laughs) It’s funny that years later people, I guess, regard me for being that guy with stage presence and all that stuff.
Do you remember when you did something out of your comfort zone onstage?
Basically, that would be being onstage! (laughs). My first gig, I remember being so terrified, my feet were literally cemented to the floor. I couldn’t move my feet. I remember being so tense. There was a lot of stage fright, a lot of anxiety, stuff that I still will battle with. I feel like most people that have been at it a long time, are like, “Ho hum, here we go, another gig.” But I’m like, “Oh my God, there’s a lot of people out there!” (laughs) I tend to be the guy that’s always anxious about it.
Do your guitars change with the different projects you do? For example, you use this for Whitesnake but that one for Cher.
Cher, you just pick up where the previous guitar player left off. There were various guitars on the Cher gig. People always see me with that blue Jackson cause those were the few moments where I would step out. But I played my Les Paul on there, a Tele, a Strat, a Jazzmaster, a double-neck guitar; so there was a variety of guitars that were used on that gig. With Whitesnake, I just wanted a clean start with that rather than going out there with my Goldtop so I just had guitars made for the gig. TSO, that’s all about the visuals, so I tend to bring like a million guitars and just have some fun swapping out cause that show’s such a spectacle that it’s fun to contribute in that department with my guitar collection.
What is the most important thing you need to remember when you’re doing these big productions, like TSO and Cher?
Yeah, those are all bigger productions and you’re just a smaller part of something big. You just always have to remember that it’s not about you, that you’re trying to contribute to the betterment of the show and be a team player and everything like that and that’s really the task at hand. And that makes people want to work with you and having an ability to do that is important. It’s all about trying to fit in and make sure that you’re cognizant of trying to make other people happy in the situations that you’re in.
Jack Casady told me last year that he is forever chasing tone. What have you been chasing on guitar the longest?
I don’t know, just trying to get through it all (laughs). You take all this stuff step by step so there’s not really one thing. And it’s not like I sit back and am content with what I play like these days. I wish I was a million times better than I am. But you just do what you can with the time and energy that you have. A lot of times, when you’re a professional, you have to let life guide you. When people ask me what I’m practicing, it’s like, well, I’m practicing my gigs. That’s pretty much what you practice. So whatever it is that I’m actually performing or playing on for people, which is a lot and nowadays add teaching into that, that tends to be what I’m working on.
Have you explored other instruments? Does that interest you?
I played tenor banjo quite a bit in some of the pit stuff I did on Broadway. Got my feet wet with that. I played that and mandolin on my acoustic album a bit. But it hasn’t really become a regular part of my thing just because most of the stuff I’ve been doing is hard rock so it doesn’t really hold a place in it. I could maybe get away with some mandolin in Whitesnake cause it has a little bit of the Jimmy Page/Led Zeppelin thing. But it hasn’t really found it’s place. I would say for the time being, it’s a lot of guitar more than other instruments. I’d like to tell you I’m practicing seven or eight other instruments or whatever but that wouldn’t be true (laughs). The way things have gone for me is I’m getting a lot of work on guitar so I’m just rolling with that.
I want to ask you about one particular guitar, the Howard Roberts f-hole. What is your history with that particular one?
My friend Dan was a part of that swing revival back when I was in the Chicago suburbs and was playing in a band that was playing that kind of Brian Setzer-y style, back when all that stuff was happening. So he needed a sub and asked me to fill in for him and I was like, “Man, I don’t even have a guitar that would fit the bill.” So the guitar store that I was teaching at at the time, that guitar was on consignment there, being sold used, so I bought it and took it out on the gigs and it did really well and, amazingly enough, it’s still making an appearance with me onstage these days. It’s just a great sounding guitar.
What do you hope you can accomplish this year musically?
I’m just going to kind of keep moving, keep working, and hopefully just continue to do these quarantine jams until we’re out doing live shows. Obviously, having the album out there is a huge deal. Getting the project out with Michael Sweet and Nathan James is a big deal for me. Anything I can just to stay out there and continue to make a living – teaching and doing cameos and all that stuff until we’re back out touring.
Everybody is wanting to get back to live shows so bad and I’m sure you feel that way as a musician.
Somebody asked me in one of the interviews I’ve been doing for the album, when’s the last time you went ten months without playing on a stage? And I was like, wait a minute, I need to think about this (laughs). I was probably thirteen years old so it’s been thirty-seven years. It’s definitely different but at the same time, touring is just one part of being a musician. It’s important to keep moving forward.
Did you try to do something new or different last year?
No, I would say diving back in on the teaching thing as heavily as I have, to be able to have thirty students a week plus doing the Masterclasses on top of that. I used to teach from about 1992 to 2000 and I taught seventy students a week, back when I was in the Chicago suburbs. Then once I started Love, Janis, that sort of began my last whole twenty years as only performing. So I would say diving back in to doing the teaching thing and diving into the deep end (laughing). It’s not new but that’s been the biggest change in terms of going from traveling and touring to doing a lot of that.
You’re helping a lot of future guitar players so you should feel good about that
Yeah, it’s not so bad. It keeps a guitar in my hands and I actually enjoy it. Trying to help people get better is fun for me. It’s a challenge but I actually want to teach them. I don’t want to just sit there and give them a forty-five minute concert while I have them on Skype (laughs). I actually break it down and move everybody forward.
If anybody wanted to look you up for lessons, they can go to your social media?
They can just email me at info@joelhoekstra.com
Live photos by Leslie Michele Derrough & Vera Harder
