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Heart of Steel
Steelheart had a successful album at the turn of the 1990s, but then rapidly seemed on course to becoming a one-hit wonder after a string of misfortune and its break-up
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teelheart had a successful album at the turn of the 1990s, but then rapidly seemed on course to becoming a one-hit wonder after a string of misfortune and its break-up. Frontman Miljenko Matijevic tells of surviving tough times to rock on.
Miljenko Matijevic's plaintive, unfailing vocals in the ballad 'She's Gone' from Steelheart's self-titled debut album showcase an octave range worthy of a legend ' garnering him the media appellation 'the modern-day Led Zeppelin'.
The song hit number one on the international charts, not budging for 17 weeks; meanwhile, the album itself, released in May 1990, went platinum, selling 33,000 copies on its first day in Japan alone.
Despite glam rock intentions evident in Matijevic's near waist-length hair, shirts unbuttoned to the navel, pointy-toed boots and writhing-on-the-floor theatrics when nailing high notes, the band's stronghold proved to be its ballads. The slow-tempo proclamation of undying love, 'I'll Never Let You Go (Angel Eyes)', reached 14th on the Billboard charts.
'It was a more having fun, happy-go-lucky kind of thing,' Matijevic, 47, said of the album, describing it as 'more formulaic' than later releases, perhaps in reference to easy-listening head-bangers such as 'Sticky Side Up' and 'Everybody Loves Eileen', with lyrics emphasizing catchy rhymes rather than introspection.
But the pressure in the music industry is always about going one better, especially when a group has enjoyed dynamite success with its debut. The US-based band's second album, Tangled in Reins (1992), only hit number 144 on the Billboard 200. Ballads once again proved a redeemer, with 'Mama Don't You Cry' reaching number one in Hong Kong and Japan.
The grunge movement was in ascendance, heralded by Seattle-based bands such as Nirvana and Pearl Jam. Distorted electric guitars, 'growling' vocals and angst-ridden, politically nuanced lyrics swiftly took over the airwaves.
Matijevic, whose four-man band will perform for the Guinness Arthur's Day 2013 celebration in Indonesia, was pragmatic about the change in tastes ' and the band's fortunes.
'The long-term goal is to keep making music and to keep making music from my heart ['¦] I'm not the kind of person that likes to chase the times because then I'm not quite true to myself,' he explained.
'That era had a lot of fun in it, a lot of freedom ' just, you know a lot of sex, drugs and rock and roll as well. But overall the energy was pure and then it got confused.'
The band's string of misfortune in 1992, when it eventually dissolved, also included a near-fatal accident.
After wrapping up the 50th concert on tour for Tangled in Reins, the band's manager coaxed them to play one last show in Denver, Colorado, with Las Vegas-based hard rock band Slaughter, ironically on Halloween.
Lost in the music, Matijevic suspended himself from an improperly secured lightning truss, and the 1,000-pound fixture came loose, driving him face-first into the stage.
'I broke my nose, my cheekbone, my jaw. I split my head open and it was [supposed to be] a fatal accident. And I got up, I got up,' Matijevic says, marveling at being able to walk offstage despite a crushed spine.
'I was full of fire, full of everything ' all these emotions going through me.'
Prostrate backstage, Matijevic underwent his own silent epiphany.
'It was like a movie ['¦] I had one of the most amazing conversations with myself or with God or however you want to look at it. And basically I was given a choice. What do you want to do?'
He was bedridden for the next seven to eight months, but memory loss and Traumatic Brain Injury kept him inactive for three years.
Staying alive
Many thought the accident would prove Steelheart's swansong, but they were proved wrong: in 1996, the band released Wait.
''¦It was really an amazing experience. I don't recommend it to anyone, however, this was my journey and it's still growing and now I'm really [restored] to feel all of this beauty and understanding of everything I've been through. I can share it,' Matijevic said.
He released the appropriately titled Good 2B Alive in October 2008 with all-new band members Mike Humbert and Rev Jones (original guitarist Chris Risola performed with the band on tour).
Originally, the album was written to be all acoustic, he says, but the final product featured heavily-distorted guitars and Matijevic's soaring vocals taken to shrieking heights using studio trickery, perplexing fans of the original Steelheart sound.
'I think the fans were not ready for a record like that,' he concedes. 'As a person I grow, I change, I listen to different music, I get different things that come through me and I create that music, that energy, that knowledge ' whatever's coming through. [Good 2B Alive] has more angles, it has more depth.'
The video clip accompanying 'LOL', an anthem of self-emancipation-with-middle-finger-in-the-air, showed a near-unrecognizable Matijevic, not only because of his shorn hair, but the Metallica-like rage and abandon of the lyrics (I just wanna be living and loving/Eating and drinking/Singing and ***king and laughing out loud) and relentless guitar riffs. The vocals were similarly distorted in 'Samurai', bordering on psychedelic rock, which critics deemed unnecessary for a vocalist of Matijevic's mettle.
After establishing his own record label, the Croatian-American relishes the creative latitude of going independent.
'When you're with a label there's more demands on you, they need more records from you right away to keep putting material out there,' said the singer, who provided the vocals for Mark Wahlberg in the American comedy-drama Rock Star (2001).
Having spent most of the year on tour, and with upcoming performances in Bali, Makassar, Medan and Surabaya from Oct. 12-19 in honor of Guinness Arthur's Day, Matijevic has enjoyed replaying songs from the original '90s albums and noticing the increasingly younger turn-out at concerts.
'[Fans] like to come to the concert and feel what they felt years ago. And they're bringing their kids to it and their kids are gonna be learning [about hard rock].'
On Oct. 28, Matijevic will release a single called 'In The Arms of Eternity', co-written with The Doors guitarist Robby Krieger.
'The long-term goal is to keep making music from my heart. And everything that is today may not be tomorrow,' he says of remaining true to hard rock.
'I write what I've experienced, what I've lived and when it's time for us to connect on the next level with the fans, it's gonna happen. So I'm gonna keep going.'
