Interviewed by Brian Rademacher
Date: June 2009

Brian Rademacher: Hey Ted, its Brian, so what’s up today?

Ted Poley: Just getting my CD stuff together for the new release "Ted Poley Greatestits vol.1", just have to send off the masters and the graphics and I should be ready to for the release.

Brian Rademacher: How many songs?

Ted Poley: Thirty three I think, it’s really cool stuff on there. I wanted to put the best of my solo stuff; you know I’m a collector too so I wanted to put stuff on there that no one can get. That Christmas stuff that never came out on CD and of course you have to put new stuff. I have stuff from POLEY/RIVERA and the two songs I did with JK Northrup and "TAKOYAKI ROCK" for Japan that’s with my Sega band. I got my Jack Frost song on here and a song from PROPHET when I sang lead. I have the original demo from "Smile" with Vic Rivera which actually came out cooler than the original pressed one. I got KISS’ "Unholy" with Chris Caffery and CC Banana. This is Volume 1 and once I work on volume 2 it will be a lot of Sega stuff which I’m trying to get the rights to.

Brian Rademacher: Yeah that "TAKOYAKI ROCK "is on your MySpace?

Ted Poley: Yeah, I just threw that on there because I never thought it would come out and it’s a good upbeat song. Actually TAKOYAKI means Octopus balls in Japan. This whole CD is really cool and I think collectors will really like it. With the first pressing we will have a limited edition "boob" cover and after that we will have a new cover for collectors. I will also take off the Ted Poley bonus track on the second pressing. This is a really cool project; all self-financed.

Brian Rademacher: So what’s going on with POLEY/RIVERA?

Ted Poley: I guess the CD is dead in the water because Angelmilk dropped the ball and went out of business that was sort of a disappointment. On the other hand Vic and I are moving full steam ahead. The new POLEY/RIVERA is being written and in preproduction and sounds awesome. We upgraded the studio so that will be coming out. THE GREATESTITS will be coming out on my own label and I think with the new POLEY/RIVERA we’ll do the same thing. That is the only way to do things these days and the only way to control it, unless there is a label out there where we can work things out. Angelmilk paid us fairly well they just had trouble filling orders and they fucked it all up. That was only one of the two owners and that’s all I will say on that. I do appreciate them giving us a chance to put the record out and in the end all I can say is they gave us a lot of money for it. I just wish they would have done a better job promoting it and made their money back. It’s a great sounding CD and it paved the way for number two. We are free and clear to work with another label now and it’s coming out no matter what.

Brian Rademacher: It seems a lot of bands are putting their material out themselves.

Ted Poley: Yeah but I love a label like Frontiers or Escape that give you a budget but otherwise most of these labels don’t buy it until your done. Now we end up spending more to make a better product and sometimes only break even. Seems if we sell a lot of units the more money the label makes, which could be going to us and we could be using that to make better sounding records.

Brian Rademacher: Yeah we are working with some great people, Michael Mazur, who took us under his wing to shoot us advances of product from Frontiers and we have been working well with Carol Kaye and many others.

Ted Poley: That’s cool so that means you will most likely get the new DANGER DANGER CD ahead of me! (laughing)

Brian Rademacher: So what can we expect from DANGER DANGER and Ted Poley at Rocklahoma?

Ted Poley: I am not sure how long our set is but DANGER DANGER is prepared to do anything. DANGER DANGER knows what to expect; a good time with the party never ending! We have the musicianship and the smiles to backup our set. It’s going to be nice to be playing on the main stage and getting everybody up on their feet. We play a lot of festivals all over the world but I have been looking forward to playing Rocklahoma in the U.S for three years. It’s going to be a party and with the new DANGER DANGER CD coming out we hope to be playing more dates in the U.S., but if not, I will be out there with the solo band.

Brian Rademacher: On August 2, 2009 you will play the 25th annual acoustic "CONCERTS UNDER THE STARS SERIES" show with Eric Martin in Pennsylvania, tell us about that?

Ted Poley: It’s a great time with Eric Martin and I, it’s an acoustic set but a full band and in a really nice park. Everyone should come out. It’s not so crowded where you can’t take pictures and Eric and I will be coming out to meet everyone and sign autographs. It has a nice lawn, you bring a blanket and it’s a great setting and it’s great to see everyone so up-close and personal. I love hanging out with Eric; that’s our annual get together.

Brian Rademacher: I know you were working on a tribute song for the Eric Carr tribute CD, whatever happened with that?

Ted Poley: That was done a few years ago and I wanted to include that on my GREATESTITS Vol. 1 CD but I got permission to include that on vol. 2 because it hasn’t been released (yet). It will be coming out. It came out ready cool. Eric Carr and Bruce Kulick wrote it years ago. I finished it up after Eric passed away and in honor of him and a fan of his it will be released; it’s called "Heaven’s Calling". I think everyone will like it and I think Eric would have been proud. It is being put out first by Eric’s sister Loretta, she’s good people in my book.

Brian Rademacher: Let’s get to the recent Z Rock show, how did that go?

Ted Poley: That was interesting, the show was great and I got to bring my US band which is basically CRUNCH with Vic Rivera, Doug Odell, Eddie Campbell and Eddy Faust on drums. We had some trouble getting into England because the f*cking promoter gave us fake work permits. I would tell people think twice if dealing with that same concert promoter. We got over it, might I say not by the promoters doing, we rocked the show and because of our detention we didn’t have as much time hanging out with everyone as we would have liked. We definitely rocked and were in and out of the country in 36 hours. We really didn’t have time to do much and we did great, I was so proud of the band and we had a great time. We hope to be back in the fall and do more touring there.

Brian Rademacher: After the release and Rocklahoma what’s the next move for Ted Poley?

Ted Poley: That is a good question. Well I have two bands and when DANGER DANGER is not out I have my solo band. I really like to play live and I do have a solo band that kicks ass so I will be out touring. I want to go back to Brazil and Peru; I had a lot of fun down there with the people and the food. Well after all that and the new release with DANGER DANGER and the new "GREATESTITS", I’m in preproduction with POLEY/RIVERA. We are also working on finishing up Vic’s studio.

Brian Rademacher: I heard that you are making special guitar picks for the Rocklahoma show are you also making any special collectibles for Ted Poley GREATESTITS Vol. 1 CD?

Ted Poley: Yeah the Rocklahoma picks are exclusive to Rocklahoma. It has my favorite caricature on there and the other side has my logo with the wording "Rocklahoma 2009". You can’t buy them at the show but you never know if you buy the new CD or something off Ted Poley.com I might include one in your order! I will give some away at Rocklahoma to fans, I will be throwing them from the stage and they will be very limited. I only made one hundred of these in four colors. I like making special things for the collectors because I’m a collector myself. If you are one of the lucky ones at Rocklahoma you might get one or if you are one of the lucky ones who order the new CD GREATESTITS I might include one in your order as a gift.

Brian Rademacher: So what is it like going to Japan, Brazil or Peru to tour?

Ted Poley: It’s amazing except the jetlag, the people are amazing and the food is just outstanding. I love going to the beach and sightseeing, but the people overall are so special to meet.

Brian Rademacher: Do you have any guest spots coming up as a special guest vocalist?

Ted Poley: Yeah I have a new Sega song and I always have offers coming in but I turn down more than I can do. I mean I bust my butt all year long and take a break in December where I spend my time sitting on the beach in Jamaica enjoying the time off.

Brian Rademacher: Ted it’s been great once again, would you like to say anything to your fans out there?

Ted Poley: Yeah, I love my fans. As you can see I’m still doing this because I love it. I have four bands worldwide so I can see everybody. I hope to do a Japanese tour to promote my video game music. I want thank everybody out there. I just updated my site with a major updates. Thank you for the support and keeping my dream alive, see ya soon!