Ex-Dio guitarist, Rowan Robertson to Feature on GATC’s New Album!
Updated: Mar 15, 2020
It was a couple of months ago, while GATC was
touring Goa, frontman Girish Pradhan received a message on Facebook from Rowan Robertson; A guitarist who was Dio’s band member in the early ‘90s in the album Lock up The Wolves. This happened shortly after a user, Herman Singh, commented on GATC’s YouTube channel, stating that he had introduced the band’s music to one of Dio’s ex-guitarist. We asked the frontman, Girish, as to how it all started:
“I was quite amazed as to how simple and a down to earth person Mr. Robertson was. We shared our numbers and soon started talking about how we could collaborate in the future. He was highly appreciative of our work and I simply felt so honoured to be in touch with him! A few weeks went by and then finally, I felt comfortable to ask him, if he would be okay to collaborate on a song, for our upcoming album. He was kind enough to say yes to it and after many considerations, we chose our song, The Rebel, (To be released with GATC’s upcoming album, Rock The Highway on 27th of April), for him. We felt that song, having a classic Heavy Metal vibe, would be perfect for a legend who has lived it for real, with the likes of Dio. We’re really super excited about this”.
Here is what the Rock Legend had to say about working on the song:
“When Girish sent me the song, I was struck by how tight and energetically GATC rock, just explosive stuff! I did a few passes of the solo with different approaches until I hit on something which sounded ok, so I sent it to him. They thought the ending could be a bit tighter, so I sent a couple more, my favorite being the last one. The guys ended up editing all three solos into one ‘question/answer’ type thing, but Girish told me I could do whatever I wanted, if I wasn’t knocked out by their idea. I said it worked just fine for me, so there’s a little piece of each of the three takes in the final one”
Rowan Robertson was recruited to join the band Dio when he was only 17 years of age. The experience launched the young guitarist from obscurity to international fame nearly overnight. News that the band Dio had replaced departing guitarist Craig Goldy with an unusually young guitar player circulated in hard rock and heavy metal magazines such as Hit Parader, Rip, and Circus months before Robertson's first and only album with the band, Lock Up the Wolves, was released.
Apart from his projects such as DC4, He is also current the guitarist at Raiding The Rock Vault, Rated No 1. Show in Las Vegas, 5 Years running.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rowan_Robertson
Well this is something to look forward to, with a lot of anticipation! And we certainly hope to see Mr. Robertson tour India soon! It would be a treat for the Heavy Metal fans in the country!
Follow Rowan Robertson on Instagram:
https://instagram.com/robertsonrowan?igshid=1bl6u37xjnyuv
Lion’s Pride music, the Record Label that signed GATC released a sampler for the upcoming album recently. You can here a short snippet of the song out here:
Rock The Highway is scheduled to released worldwide, on 27th of April 2020.
