FM: The interesting thing with 'Strange Dreams'...for one you'll notice there's not a guitar solo in that song, it's basically a keyboard tune. We had done our seventh album for Columbia, we were contracted for eight, and as usual the record company came up to us about a month after it being released and said, 'okay, let's think about the next one.' They had done that on just about every one of my albums and I've never seen them promote my band. Well, this time I said 'I'm not taking this anymore. I've done seven albums for you and this time I want to give this record a shot.' And they basically said that they weren't interested. So I went out and hired an independent radio promotion guy out of Los Angeles and we gave him the Juggernaut record and told him that Columbia isn't doing anything for us as usual, so see what you can do. So, he picked the song 'Strange Dreams' and got it played on KLOS in Los Angeles, and all of the sudden he started getting phones on the record and the next thing you know he's got 187 stations rotating this song #1within weeks and Columbia knew nothing about it. They didn't know 'til the point where we had to book an appointment with the VP of the label to tell him. He thought we were coming to discuss our problems with our contract and we come in and tell him 'you've got a #1 radio record here, now will you please get behind the record?' Of course, he didn't believe it was true and had to call downstairs to confirm that it was true, as if I was going to walk into his office and present him with false reports. They confirmed that it was true and the next thing you know he was patting me on the back saying 'sorry this all had to happen this way...let's go get 'em tiger!' So we walk out of there thinking that the record company is finally going to get behind this record, and guess what? They did absolutely nothing and the next thing you know, we were off the label. People in the industry had told me that Columbia couldn't afford to have their own artist go out and promote his record without their knowledge because they couldn't have that story circulate, so they basically shelf you as quickly as possible. And they made certain that all it would get was the airplay because you couldn't even find the record in the stores. So that was the end of my days with major labels. I know I kind of went off on a tangent with the 'Strange Dreams' story, but from a Canadian perspective, yes there are a lot of good, dedicated Canadian musicians. Living next to our big brother...we're 30 million people living in Canada and 300 million people living in America. At a very early age, we were always brought up with the notion that we have to try a little harder, try to fit in, not to be rude, and to put your best foot forward to gain respect. When you're part of a small minority you kind of don't want to rock too many boats and give a bad name to your minority. So Canadian musicians generally walk softly and carry big sticks, so to speak. So you will get a lot of artists, like myself, who have that attitude, as well as other artists like Rik Emmet [Triumph], Kim Mitchell, Neil Young, and Joni Mitchell. They're gonna pay more attention to their craft than they might have to. That's what Canadians do and they still do it till this day.
A Conversation With FRANK MARINO Page 8