Self-deprecation tends to mask a certain degree of inner confidence. Take Cheap Trick. Apart from providing a sassy throwback to their 1980 triumph, All Shook Up, the title of this year’s All Washed Up could be taken two ways: a band with nothing more to give, or one freshly scrubbed and ready to go.
“That’s exactly the idea,” charismatic frontman Robin Zander tells Classic Rock. “That’s why I liked it. I kind of forced that title down everybody else’s throat.”
Studio album number 21 in a career of half a century and counting, All Washed Up finds Cheap Trick on killer form, dispensing heavy power-pop, anthemic choruses and, as the title of one song attests, audacious riffs that refuse to quit. Alongside fellow veterans Rick Nielsen (guitar) and Tom Petersson (bass), Zander sounds as energised as ever.
The release of your previous album, 2021’s In Another World, was delayed by covid. So had you been chomping at the bit to record these new songs?
Oh yeah. At the same time, everybody’s got their own thing going on, so All Washed Up was recorded a little differently than our other albums. We did the basic tracks without melodies or lyrics, then built the songs around those instrumentals. We basically recorded in three different studios. We started out in Nashville for the instrumental stuff, then we took it to Sweetzerland Studios in LA to do the melodies and vocals, then we brought it back to Florida, where I live, to finish it up. And it worked out great.
The band have been together for such a long time. Why does that creative relationship between you, Rick and Tom work so well?
In my opinion, it’s because we were never friends. We were never close, so we never pissed in each other’s backyard. We still don’t socialise much outside of touring and recording. It was musical glue that held us together. We have a lot of respect for each other musically.
The album’s lead-off single, Twelve Gates, alludes to the Book Of Revelation. But it feels upbeat.
That’s true. It’s really a reflection of what’s going on in our country, and with humanity in general. If you don’t have good communication between each other, you can have division. And with division sometimes comes some rebellion, and with that bad things can happen. So I think Twelve Gates is basically about trying to get along.
Bad Blood feels like a companion piece of some kind.
Well, its sentiment can be between a man and woman, or a producer and band, or a guitar player and singer. It can be all those things. Bad blood is a negative thing that can destroy things. I think our country right now has a lot of bad blood in it, and it’s sort of hard for me, personally, to deal with. I never thought it would come to this, but there you go. Hatred is a terrible thing. It’s a disease, it grows. So you have to give it some medicine.
But the overriding message of the album appears to be one of optimism. So you’re still hopeful?
Yeah. Writing these lyrics and stuff is part of me. And I’m a hopeful person, so it comes out that way. But I’m not always like that. Sometimes I’m desperate.
A song like Dancing With The Band forwards the idea of music as a cure.
That’s exactly what I was thinking. And I think that’s what brings people together. Music is a key element to stop hatred.
The Best Thing is reminiscent of classic soul and R&B groups like The Temptations and The Miracles. Were you aiming for that?
That’s a very good observation. Yes we were. Of course, alongside the influence of the British Invasion, growing up in the Chicago area meant that we were all very familiar with early Motown music. And that’s sort of the inspiration for The Best Thing.
Anglophilia has always been discernible in Cheap Trick. Do you still feel that nostalgic pull?
I think all of us are like that. We wear that era on our sleeve when we write songs, because it’s deep inside of us. It’s in our heart and soul. But it’s filtered through you, of course, as a writer, so it becomes personal. It’s not like you’re stealing anything, it’s just that those influences come alive.
Are some songs on the new album aimed at anybody in particular? I’m thinking of songs like A Long Way To Worcester.
Yeah, that’s about a girl, back in my early days, that I couldn’t have. And I struggled with that because I didn’t understand why she was so closed up and didn’t want to go out with me. That song has actually been around for a while. The music was written by Tom Petersson, myself and two friends. The melody was there, but it had no words. So I wrote the lyrics last year.
All Wrong Long Gone feels like you’re channelling AC/DC on some level…
Well, we know AC/DC very well. Bon Scott was a friend of mine. I appreciated him so much. We toured together back in seventy-seven and seventy-eight, playing high schools and colleges Stateside. Neither band was really popular then. So we’d do these shows in auditoriums, and half of it would be curtained off so that it looked full. And we’d flip-flop as to who was going to be the headliner. One of my fondest memories was in Germany, at Zeppelinfield [Nürnberg Open Air Festival, Sept 1 1979], with The Who, who still had their Tommy light show out there. Family was also on the bill, alongside the Scorpions, AC/DC and Cheap Trick. It was incredible.
Like fellow Anglophiles Sparks, Cheap Trick’s music has often been marked by a dry, self-deprecating humour. Bet It All seems to be your latest example of that.
Yeah, I think there’s a parallel between us and Sparks. But I also think each band is unique unto itself. We’ve always been sort of tongue-in-cheek about what we do. We don’t take ourselves too seriously. In fact, some people thought of us as clowns when we first started out. They didn’t know where to put us on the shelf. So it felt like we had to prove ourselves as songwriters and musicians.
Love Gone feels very personal. How did that song come about?
I saw a thing on television of this young child in Gaza, crying as he was eating mash of some kind. And I thought to myself: “Where is your mom and dad? Do you have a home? What’s going on here?” So I just wrote a song about that. That’s what I was thinking, but it could be related to all different kinds of things. Melody-wise it was definitely Bowie-inspired. Not that it sounds like him, but it gave me a path to follow, I think.
I was influenced by David Bowie a lot. In fact I’ve recently been asked to do a tour to celebrate his life. I’ve yet to do it, but I’d love to, because I know every song. Some of the first songs that we ever did as Cheap Trick, playing in small clubs, were Bowie songs - stuff like Space Oddity, Rebel Rebel, Suffragette City. We actually recorded Rebel Rebel a couple of years ago for Sirius Radio.
So presumably the Bowie-related invitation was as part of some all-star band?
Yeah, it was. I was invited to do that last year, but Cheap Trick was touring, so there was no way I could do it. So it’s been postponed until 2026. We’ll see what happens. If I’ve got the time to do it, I will. It’ll be wonderful.
The new album closes with Wham Boom Bang, which feels like a slightly out-of-kilter throwback compared to the rest of the album. What was the thinking with that track?
That’s a song that the other guys really didn’t want to do, and I don’t blame them. But I love it because it reminds me of my dad. And I thought: “Oh my god, this is my only chance that I’ll ever have to present this song to somebody.” I think it’s a song that people will find fascinating for Cheap Trick. We’re a pretty diverse group. I Want You To Want Me [the band’s best-known hit, from 1979] had that sort of bop to it too.
Why does it remind you of your dad?
It just has that beat that was popular back in the forties. My dad was a musician, so he always had instruments around the house. He was a welder during the week, then on the weekend he’d go to the roller-skating rink and play the organ for the kids to skate to.
Was your dad an encouraging figure for you when you were growing up?
Not really, to be honest. He didn’t really appreciate the music that I was into. I had a drum set in my room and I was too loud all the time. When he’d come home from work he’d want to go to sleep, and I’d be up late doing stuff. I remember the first time he came to one of our shows.
Actually, we were playing with AC/DC near a town where I grew up, in Rockford, Illinois. He didn’t even watch the show. He sat in the trailer and drank all the beer instead. Then afterwards he goes: “You guys sounded great!” What it was, I think, is that he didn’t realise how popular we’d become. It was like he was embarrassed because he hadn’t recognised that before. As a dad, that can be a little humbling.
In terms of performing live, is it still the same thrill for you?
It is. But keeping it fresh can be hard, because some of the guys in the band have an idea that you’ve got to play the hits and do what the crowd wants to hear. And I’ve always been the opposite of that. I’ve always thought: “Let’s turn them on to some Cheap Trick music that they don’t know we do, and see what happens.” But we work it out. Every night we try to work out a different setlist.
It would be great to see Cheap Trick playing in the UK again.
We’re actually working on touring Europe. Obviously, the UK would be the place to start. So that’s what we’re hoping for, because we haven’t been over there in a while.
Cheap Trick's US tour kicks off on January 24. For full dates and tickets, visit the Cheap Trick website.
