From Frontline to Ray of Light with Stephan Bayerlein

From Frontline to Ray of Light with Stephan Bayerlein

Ray of Light is the new band from Stephan Bayerlein, the former drummer of melodic rock legends Frontline.  Best known for his appearance on their State of Rock masterwork, Stephan and Frontline guitarist Robby Böbel decided to work together to create Ray of Light.  The idea would be to pick up right where the State of Rock ended – however Robby would become ill with cancer and would not live to see the debut album through.  Robby provided a lot of guidance on his scratch guitar tracks and helped to write many of the songs.  Stephan would soon pick up the pieces, form a complete Ray of Light lineup, and release a massive debut album entitled Salute.  Highwire Daze recently interviewed Stephan Bayerlein to find out more about the creation of Salute, how the Ray of Light project pulled together, memories of his friendship with Robby. and more…

We are here with Stephan Bayerlein from Ray of Light. First of all, where is the band based out of and what is your local music scene like there?
The actual band is based in southern part of Germany. Our singer, he is British. He is coming from the northeast, from England, from Middlesbrough that is in the Newcastle area. That is where he’s from.

Your new album is called Salute. Is there any overall story or concept behind the album title, Salute? Is it maybe a reference to Robby Boebel?
Yes. It’s both. Very closely connected to Robby and Robby’s passing. While at the same time it’s a salute, a welcome, a hello to a positive future after all that rollercoaster ride we had to deal with over the last years, basically after Robby has left us. We came up with the title Salute more or less in connection with Robby. But it’s a positive sign or a hello to a positive future.

The single City of Angels, tell me about that song and what it means to you, the inspiration behind it.
City of Angels, you’re based in Los Angeles, right?

I sure am. Yes.
Yes. You probably heard that many times. It’s called the City of Angels because of Los Angeles. The story behind it basically is, it’s the city of dreams where people go to realize their dreams, to fulfill their dreams, either becoming a music pop, rock star, an actor, an actress. This is all basically possible in Los Angeles. This is where most of the entertainment business is based, basically, or where it’s coming from. This is where the opportunities are. But the downside of it is that I used to be many times in Los Angeles, I used to work there. I was running a record label and producing records and being involved in a lot of creative things in that city. So, I’m pretty much familiar with the city and the vibe, basically it can be an inspiration, Los Angeles.  But it’s got its negative sides to it, so to speak. People, they go there, but also their dreams, they can be shattered. They just go there, and just a handful of people, they make it there. A lot of other people, well, artists who go there, they’re disappointed and they leave, or they end up like… hey have to work, working as a waiter or something, and they maybe never fulfilled their dreams, and this is a pretty big disappointment. This is more or less what the story of City of Angels is all about.

I’ve seen that firsthand because I started the magazine in 1990, and it was right around the time the Sunset Strip was beginning to wind down, and there were still a lot of bands coming out here seeking their fame and fortune. A lot of them didn’t make it. So your song is very relatable. Absolutely.
Gregg Cromack came up with the lyrics, of course. It’s about a girl. The girl, she’s going to that city and then trying to catch up with her dream. Then the dream getting shattered. This happens very often or more often in Los Angeles than in any other place on the planet, I think.

How did the passing of Robby Böbel affect Ray of Light, both musically and personally? Was there any chance that you didn’t want to do Ray of Light anymore after Robby passed?
Yeah, absolutely. It’s still tough for me to tell that story, even though I told it now several times, but still… Robby and myself, we had a long history and we were friends. It’s was not just about music. We knew each other for a very long time – 35 years almost. We used to work in the same music store. I was running the drum section while Robby was working in the guitar section, and then we had that band together, et cetera. Later on, when I left Frontline after the second album, I used to manage one of his bands called Evidence One, and got him record deals. Even during that time, we never really lost contact. Robby sent me music asking about my opinion. We were basically honestly talking about things, and also personal things as I said, it wasn’t just only about music. Then, when we decided that we’re going to do it together again, we said, we are going to do it right. Exactly, we continued where we ended up after the State of Rock album, actually. Two and a half decades later, we are going to do a follow-up to the State of Rock album, more or less. That was the plan. So, then Robby had music already written, then he came up with new stuff. We were sending files back and forth, and we were working on songs and all that. We were totally hyped about the outcome of the songs.

Especially when Gregg was coming in the picture, we were sure. This album is going to be amazing and then suddenly it was the 22nd of February 2022. I could sense a little bit earlier. A few months earlier, I could sense there is something wrong. We haven’t seen each other during the three, four months prior to that WhatsApp, what I’m just going to tell you, and I could sense on the phone that there is something wrong. I was asking him, “Hey, Robby, is everything okay with you?” He said, “Yeah, well, everything is fine, blah, blah, blah.” But nothing was fine. Then he wrote me onWhatsApp telling me that he’s seriously ill, he had cancer. I received that in February 22nd, 2022. Just that date alone, that is forever locked in my memory. I was lost after he was gone. Robby died like four months later.

We had a lot of conversations during that time. Not necessarily about music, actually, anymore. It was more about personal stuff. I even didn’t dare to touch the subject music because I didn’t want it to make him feel like I’m bringing up the music in order to put pressure maybe on him, knowing that he’s seriously ill.  But we had very good conversations. At the final talk we had, actually Robby brought it up, I think, and then he said, “Stephan, the record is going to be really good and with Gregg singing and all that, and it’s got to see the light of day.” I made him that promise, and I said, “Yeah, I’m going to do it. I’m going to release it, and I promise you that.” Robbie said it will be good. He trusted me and my knowledge, my skills, and I’ve been a couple of times around the block in that business, music-wise, and was involved in productions, et cetera. Therefore, Robbie said, “if you’re going to take care of that, it’s going to be good because otherwise it wouldn’t see the light of day. I know you.”  I didn’t know during that conversation that’s it’s our last conversation, but it was. Then we got off the phone, then we wrote a couple of WhatsApp’s, and then basically that was it. Then the 14th of July, he passed away.

So, I got used to the thought, more or less, that someone’s got to replace Robby, and that someone became Warthy. Warthy, he replaced Robby once already in Evidence One. He was the guitar player when Robby left the band. They had a lot of respect for each other. So, I knew that Robby would be okay with Warthy, and then we started working with him, and then everything went like, bang, bang, bang, bang. He came up with mixes and then we were talking about what guitars we can keep from Robby, because there were a lot of guide tracks, scratch tracks. We had to replace several of them because they were meant to be only scratch tracks or guide tracks. Of course, there’s Robby’s songwriting. It’s obvious, Robby is all over the place on that record. I like, to say that we have guitar-wise, the best of both here on the record.

Did Frontline ever get the chance to play here in the States?
No, unfortunately not. I always wanted to. Unfortunately, not. It was always my intention. I was trying to hook up things, but we could never really make it fly. The interesting thing is, as long as I was in Frontline, we played live. I was, I don’t know, maybe the engine of that band, or driving force. I was trying to hook up things with business people, managers, bookers, promoters – and we played live shows when I was in the band, and after I left, they never played one single live show, not one. The strange part at my end now is, I’m sitting here – we are doing that Ray of Light – and people continuously asking us if we’re going to put it on stage, and hopefully we will do everything in my power to get it on a stage within the right conditions. We’re not interested in playing a club show for like 120 people or something, because we need to set it up right. If we put Ray of Light, we probably going to play a couple of Frontline songs, because this is what people expect, obviously. Gregg is absolutely up to do it. When we go on stage, this is going to be the first time a Frontline song is going to be played live again, imagine this after 30 years, after I left the band. It’s totally crazy.

Do you have any messages for Frontline and Ray of Light fans who are reading this now?
Yes, absolutely. I’m glad that there are still Frontline fans existing out there, and I hope that they’re going to enjoy the Ray of Light album. And that I hope we manage to carry on with the Frontline DNA and delivered an album that they like as much as they like the State of Rock album. That was the intention. Of course, hopefully, to see those people somewhere at a place, live, and to have the interaction between a band and the audience. So, we hope we can put it up, and then to see a lot of the fans finally in person.

(Interview by Ken Morton)

RAY OF LIGHT LINEUP:
Gregg Cromack – Vocals
Stephan Bayerlein – Drums
Joerg Wartmann – Guitar
Thomas Bauer – Bass

Visit RAY OF LIGHT:
https://linktr.ee/rayoflightband
http://www.ray-of-light.de/
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063932030151
http://www.instagram.com/ray.of.light.band/
https://www.youtube.com/@rayoflight230