LOST INTERVIEW: JEFF SCOTT SOTO from W.E.T. – March 2025

Here is an interview transcript that got buried in my inbox…

According to a recent press release: “International powerhouse rock group W.E.T. are pleased to announce the release of their highly anticipated new studio album, Apex, set for release on March 28th, 2025, via Frontiers Music Srl. Apex, the fifth studio album of the melodic supergroup, is a bold statement in the band’s confidence that they have delivered their best work to date. Eleven tracks full of big choruses and hooky melodies, all served on a platter of smooth heaviness. The acronym W.E.T. comes from the members’ association with other bands, Robert Säll & Andreas Passmark from Work of Art, Erik Mårtensson & Magnus Henriksson from Eclipse and Jeff Scott Soto from Talisman. And now, for the first time ever, the T is emphasized as Talisman drummer Jamie Borger has joined forces with the band’s original core members. W.E.T. truly epitomizes what melodic rock has become in the new decade. The key element at the foundation of W.E.T. has always been to create a modern melodic hard rock sound that will drive the genre into the future. Combining powerhouse rhythms and top-notch production (courtesy of Erik Martensson), the music is equally classic and contemporary. Although a side project to the members’ original bands, over the course of the band’s existence, W.E.T. have reconvened regularly over the last 15 years to produce four studio albums and a live record.” I was able to get Jeff on the phone to discuss new music, old music, touring, and much more…

Todd: Thank you so much, Jeff. I’ve talked to you so many times and I get super excited every time.

Jeff: That’s awesome.

Todd: So, let’s talk about the newest thing, there’s always so many different things to talk about, but let’s talk about the newest release from W.E.T. The fans, including myself, have been dying for another release from you guys, and what can you tell us about this one we might not catch the first or tenth time we listened through it?

Jeff: Well, first of all, in general, it’s always fun to do these records because they are spread apart within the time that we can actually sit back and see what’s happening musically, what’s happening in the scene, just making sure that people are even still interested in this kind of stuff. So, it gives us a chance to step back from it, as opposed to our normal day jobs with the band, that we’re normally known for, or the albums that we normally do. The difference is, it was kind of the same as Sons of Apollo, we get to sit back and stew on it, while we’re doing all the other things and then when we come back around, it seems fresh and exciting to do it again, as opposed to, okay, it’s on the calendar, we have to do it. That’s the big difference, especially with this new album, because we have new breath of life injected into it, having Jamie Borger from Talisman involved, and so there was a new excitement level. It’s like a new relationship, yet it’s with an old boyfriend, or an old girlfriend, if you want to call it that. It’s like starting a whole new life with somebody familiar.

Todd: You mentioned Jamie getting into the fold, you guys are all back on even square, where it’s always been W.E.T. for the three different bands, and now you got two guys from each band, so everybody’s equally represented. Not that there’s ever an imbalance, but how have you guys been able to create the balance to where this truly is a group effort and not Jeff’s going to do the vocals and the lyrics, and Robert and Erik are going to do this component, how have you guys been able to balance that and make it truly a group effort?

Jeff: Well, to be honest with you, it is overseen by Erik Mårtensson. He wrangles all the songs together with everyone, he gets everyone together for the writing sessions, he does all the recordings, he does the mixing, he even writes the majority of my melodies, he gets a majority of my lyrics done. He’s the overseer, it’s never really been a group effort in those terms. The group effort is basically our contributions once we actually started kind of filling in, or the  painting by musical numbers. Basically, when Erik sends me an idea for something, he’s already got the melody done, and as I said, he will demo it with the actual lyrics already sung and everything. Instead of me just copying what he’s doing, I use it obviously as a guide, and from day one it’s always been that way. I basically just put my own version of what he created, and very much in the way that, and I’m not comparing him or my status or my level in any way, shape or form, but really in the way that Freddie Mercury would sing a Brian May song or a Roger Taylor penned song for Queen, in the end, the results sounded like they did it together, it sounded like Freddie co-wrote it, he never just phoned it in. When he does a song, like “We Will Rock You,” it’s something that was written by Brian May, but when you hear Freddie, he has a conviction, and his stamp of what he does makes it sound like he was very much part of the creative process. We do the same thing, it sounds like a collaborative effort because of our contribution, but it just, it’s overseen, and it starts with Erik.

Todd: Great insight, I appreciate that. Looking through this album and listening back through now, because you guys have had it done for a little while, you’ve been able to absorb it, or maybe just walk away from it for a little bit if that’s what you needed to do, are there any songs on it that just still pull to you and have some of that same magic that maybe the first couple tracks from the debut had to where you thought, this is a cool ass project?

Jeff: Yeah, the bottom line is because we have so many albums now and so many years working with each other and working for this particular project, it’s more autopilot in terms of knowing what our audience or the people that do like since the first record are expecting of us. We do think along the terms of the audience, that it’s one of the few projects that I personally, I think along the lines of what the people want as opposed to what I want. In normal circumstances, I’m an artist, and I’m trying to create, I’m to expand, I’m trying to show other sides, other colors, other variables, and other influences. That’s my job, in terms of me being creative and me moving ahead and moving forward in my own career, my own choices. When it comes to W.E.T., we absolutely think about what the people that have bought all the records want from us, and every song is crafted that way in terms of we’re not trying to reinvent the wheel, we’re not trying to throw in a polka disco song, we’re not trying to do anything that’s going to take away from what the people actually expect out of this project, and I think that’s the difference between the mindset of what Erik does with Eclipse, compared to what we do for W.E.T.

Todd: That makes sense. When it comes to this latest project, Apex, you have a couple videos out there. “House on Fire,” that track just screams… I love it, I’ve loved it from the first time I heard it.

Jeff: Thanks, man.

Todd: What about this process, this album go around, did anything drastically change for you? I know you do so many of your things remotely in LA, and everybody else is everywhere else, was there anything extremely different or markedly different for you in doing this album as compared to any of the others?

Jeff: No, not necessarily. Of course, we’re older, we’ve got a few more years of experience and wisdom under our belts, and from that you basically draw from everything that you’ve already done or everything you’ve recently done, and you try to harness the best and maybe even possibly the worst of it, and put it into songs. And so, yeah, there’s no real formula or answer to that, we just dive in and do it based on what we know is expected of us.

Todd: Remembering through the lyrics you sang on this, is there any one or two lyrics that really struck a chord with you personally? I know all these songs are personal because you’re pouring yourself into them, but were there any that just really tugged at you and made you want to give it that extra?

Jeff: I really keep that mindset on everything, I don’t say this one in particular, I have to really give it the treatment, or this one is more special, or this one I can phone it in. I don’t really do that with any of the songs. One of the things that you actually touched upon earlier is how long the album’s basically been done, it’s been in the can for so long, and it took, basically, the idea of the label of when they want to release it, they wanted to find the right timing for it, etc., but because it was sitting for some time, it really gave me a chance to go back and say, “I don’t really feel too confident in how sounded this day, on this particular song,” and I got to readdress some things. That was the one good thing about having that extra time, and as well the song “House on Fire,” going back to what you said on that, loving that song, that wasn’t on the original record. If we turned in the album, it was released on the original dates that they were expecting us to turn everything in, that song would not be on the record. That song came on the 11th hour. The album was mixed, it was done, and then there was a brainstorm moment, we got a last-minute emergency text from Erik, saying, “Guys, I got this amazing song, we have to do this, we have to rush, we have to put this on the record, it’s a great song,” and that was “House On Fire.” So, a few things positive came out of the negative of having to wait for the label to find the release dates, the timing, everything’s got to be months in advance, et cetera, and it turned into years in advance, it gave us a lot of time to perfect a few more things that we would’ve probably been bothered by had we left it as is.

Todd: It’s crazy to think that that wouldn’t have been on the album because to me it helps kind of tie out the first three or four songs sonically.

Jeff: Well, this is exactly what Erik said to us, he said, because the song is more up-tempo and rock, I think we need that for the record, and because we do have the luxury of time to add it on it, to get it done and add it on there, none of us assumed or thought it would be an actual single, even though we knew it was a strong song, we just, because it was so last-minute, we never anticipated it being a single, and not only is it a single, it’s the only video that we made an actual music video together for it. The lyrics, the videos, the things with photos, this is the only song that we made a band video from.

Todd: That’s just insane to me. One thing that I know the fans want, it’s just logistically and financially, because you and I have had that conversation many a time over the years, not realistic for a tour. I know you guys have done some one-off shows and festivals, for the label, things like that. Do you ever think about trying to pull some of this stuff, and maybe you have, and putting some of this stuff into your own solo set list.  I know you’ve got so much material to pull from.

Jeff: I absolutely do, and every time I do a JFS show, there’s always W.E.T. represented in the set list. Last year, in Brazil, I did a festival where they didn’t want the normal JFS 40 anniversary set list, they wanted something a little more – focused for that particular festival, that was just geared for them and something just a little extra personal touch for them. I said, why don’t I do a set list that’s only the Swedish part of my career? Because I have three bands, I have Talisman, Yngwie, and W.E.T. to draw from. The entire set list was only W.E.T, Talisman, and Yngwie Mamlsteen. It was fun to do. But even with Soto-Bieler, we throw in one W.E.T. song because we realize there are some in the U.S. that know of this project, and we throw it in because it’s part of my life.

Todd: It absolutely is. You’re known for your diverse projects, your name pops up everywhere, as you know I’m a huge fan. What else have you got on the horizon? You’re always coming up with something different, you’ve mentioned Sons of Apollo, and I know that that’s always got to have its right moment in time, and things like that, but what have you got coming out that you’re still excited about that you can talk about?

Jeff: Well, for the record, without any official notice, Sons of Apollo is, it’s sealed and… The coffin is closed and it’s sealed. I don’t think there’s a way that Sons of Apollo can exist at the same time as Mike has gone back to Dream Theater. Rightly so. Sons of Apollo was kind of a newer, extended version of what Dream Theater’s already created, and being able to make an amazing career for themselves. So, with Mike back in that it really makes no sense for him to continue Sons of Apollo, and it makes zero sense for us to find a new drummer. It’s Mike and Derek’s band, it’s pointless to continue without Portnoy, I wouldn’t personally want to do it. Other things, I’m pretty much trying to pull back the reins a little bit because there’s just really too many releases with my name on it, they start kind of filtering into one another, and I don’t want to cheapen or lessen any of the projects or any of the people I work with because I’ve got too much going on. Yes, this is what I do, this is what I do for a living, I got to make a living, but on the other hand, I can also choose when to pull back and not have too many releases in the course of a year. So, the only other thing that’s coming out this year is the new Ellefson-Soto album, which is fantastic, and that, again, that was all based on timing. When we recorded the first one, when we released the first one, and we just felt we wanted to do another one. We already started writing songs after the first one, without even knowing if we’d even get to a second one. But having all those songs under our belts, it made life a lot easier to then decide, okay, we have a lot of songs, let’s make a second record. Whereas the first one was more a collection of songs that we were collaborating on without knowing what we’re doing with them. Now, we had an idea, we had an end game regarding we’re going to make an actual second record, sophomore effort, and that’s exactly what we’re doing. Besides that, I’m just doing a lot of appearances, I’m not really touring for any releases per se, because I’ve got a year booked of, I’m jumping around the world again, doing a bunch of different things, from playing with the Prague Philharmonic in Vienna, to going back to Indonesia to do these things. I’ve got this tour with Erik Martin in Brazil. I’m just doing specialty things that I really want to do, as opposed to the ones I’m not necessarily forced to do, but expected to do when you release something new.

Todd: I love the sentiment that you threw out there, that you’re reeling it in to be able to focus and allow the fans to focus on the individual projects. So many bands are so willing to go out there and just saturate the market, lessening the power of a release. So, I love the fact that you are very self-conscious about that process.

Jeff: Well, yeah, and a lot of the things I’ve done, there were a lot of things I did that I didn’t necessarily think would ever be released, I do them because they’re sessions, they’re the way I make a living, but when they all start coming out, they start trickling out at the same time, I’m trying to promote something that actually is part of my arsenal, then it just starts being watered down, and it’s like, okay, people just need to stop hearing the name Jeff  Scott Soto every two weeks.

Todd: Well, those words will never come out of my mouth, I can guarantee you that. I still spin my Biker Mice From Mars.

Jeff: Biker Mice From Mars. Yeah. The bottom line is, as I said, this is what I do for a living, and the bottom line is I never was, and never will be, especially not at this age, the kind of artist where everybody knows who I am, and I should just stick to one lane. I’ll never be a Steven Tyler, or James Hetfield, where I’m known strictly and primarily for one band and one entity. I wish I had that, obviously that was my goal when I started doing this. Unfortunately, it didn’t turn out that way, because as I was part of so many projects, so many things that didn’t really resonate with the masses, I just had to keep going. At some point, I was just thinking, well, if I do enough things, one of them is going to stick. Sadly, none of them really stuck as the one thing I could focus and concentrate on, so I just kept on that path of doing as much as I could and making sure I didn’t starve in the meantime.

Todd: Right, right. No, and you’ve been part of so many projects that I was always shocked never really took off or hit that stride. Another one being Eyes. I always thought that Eyes album was just phenomenal.

Jeff: Thanks.

Todd: I know you’re busy, before I let you go, Jeff, one last question. You’ve got one hell of a catalog, it’s just crazy to think about your catalog and all the songs, but if you had to pick one song title as an epitaph, at the end of the day, what’s the one song, the words, the title that you would want to be remembered for? Not necessarily the performance or what it meant, but just the words.

Jeff: The funny thing is, when I wrote the lyrics to the song, I answered that question, in my head I knew someday I would get that question. So, when I wrote these lyrics, they were primed exactly for that question. It’s a song on the Life album by Talisman, and it’s called “A Life.” The song is four different musical parts, and I remember when Marcel played it for me, I’m like, oh my God, this is so confusing, but what do I do here? The song has, it’s kind of like “Bohemian Rhapsody,” it’s got the intro, which is acapella, it’s got the ballad-y portion of the song, which goes into the guitar solo in the opera section, which is completely different from the beginning. And then it goes to the rock section, then it goes back to the ballad-y section. So, it was kind of broken up that way when he first played it musically to me, and I thought, okay, because it’s broken up that way, I need to write the lyrics as a chapter, each section’s going to be a chapter of a life. And then I started really digging deep, the intro is mellow, and it talks about how the baby’s being born, and then the next section starts getting a little more up-tempo, and that’s when the child is now in the teens, younger adult stages, and then when the song changes again, that’s when that person’s in the adult stages of now having children, and buying a house, all those things… Not that that’s what the lyrics are, but those are the sections that I was focusing on. And then, when it comes back to the ending, it gets slower again, and that’s when the person is older, meaning me, and now reflecting on life and looking back at the grandkids and all that stuff. So, that was one that really took me, I really had to pay attention to how I wanted to craft the lyrics and make sure it made sense, that you saw the cycle of a life in that song, and musically it reflected that, but lyrically it also fit that.

Todd: Lyrically and sonically it does that for sure. As always, such an extreme pleasure to chat Jeff. Tthank you once again for being able to take the time out, and hopefully somewhere out around the world I’ll be able to catch Jeff live on the stage somewhere sooner than later.

Jeff: Yes, sir. I won’t stop until I can’t do it anymore, so somewhere along the way, we’ll cross paths.

Todd: Sounds great, man. Thanks again, Jeff.

Jeff: All the best Todd.

JEFF SCOTT SOTO LINKS:

OFFICIAL SITE

FACEBOOK

X – TWITTER

INSTAGRAM

W.E.T. – APPLE MUSIC

JEFF SCOTT SOTO – APPLE MUSIC

Category: Interviews