YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – “Working Blue,” the upcoming album by Turbo Lovers, is loaded with killer rock riffs.
B.J. Lisko, frontman for the long-lived Youngstown band, calls it their best release in a long time. “It better be, for as long as it took us to finish,” he said.
The album will be released Friday, Nov. 21. But the video for the lead single, “Black & Blue,” is already making the rounds.
It was shot at Past Times arcade in Girard, with the band nestled between rows of pinball machines.
The extra bells and whistles were a lure for Lisko. “[The first time] I saw the place, I knew it would be a great video location,” he said.
He asked the owners if they would let him shoot there and got the green light.
“They fired up the whole place for us and let us film during one of their maintenance days,” Lisko said. “I’m surprised that we were the first band to have asked to do a video there.”
Joining Lisko, who plays guitar and handles lead vocals, in the band are Keith Dougherty on bass and backing vocals and Christian DeSantis on drums.
“Working Blue” is the fourth full-length album – and fifth release overall – with that lineup, which came together in 2011.
Turbo Lovers was launched in 2003 and has released 10 albums in total.
The upcoming album was recorded and produced by Dave Piatek at Room Sound in Cleveland.
A record-release show will take place Dec. 20 at the Royal Oaks.
The band’s sound continues to call to mind AC/DC, Kiss, Danko Jones, Social Distortion and a variety of other acts.
After more than two decades of writing and producing music, Lisko and company know what works.
“Songwriting, especially within the rock genre, is taking inspiration from all of your influences and doing as best as you can to make it unique or in some way your own,” Lisko said. “We’ve gotten pretty good at writing songs where people say, ‘That sounds like something I know and like, but I can’t put my finger on what it is.’”
Lisko and his band know what they’re good at and will keep playing by the rules that built them.
“The style of music we play tends to have certain boundaries or else it becomes something else,” he said. “But we try to push as close to the edges as we can to keep things sounding fresh.”
Would they ever take a stab at experimenting or expanding into other genres? Dabble with other instruments or try some offbeat pacing?
“I don’t know if we would ever add instruments that aren’t guitar, drums and bass, unless a song specifically called for maybe keys or a saxophone or something,” Lisko said. “We kind of go by the AC/DC model. And I think we’d be pretty useless trying to write in another genre, since rock is really all we know.”
One of the songs on the new album, “In Youngstown,” hits home for the band and anyone who lives in the area. But it speaks to just about everyone.
It starts with the old “it’s a long way to the top if you want to rock ’n’ roll” ethos and then adds a little bit of wisdom.
What spurred the lyrics?
“A friend of mine once told me, ‘Youngstown is never going to love you as much as you love it,’” Lisko said. “‘In Youngstown’ is about loving where you come from but knowing it’s probably never going to be the way you want it to be.”
The key, the lyrics imply, is to stick to your guns regardless of the setbacks.
“Like the chorus says, ‘Breaking down is such a waste of time.’ You can complain about the way things are, and then fall to bits, or you can get on with it,” Lisko said. “We’ll always choose the latter.”
One line adds a bit of hope to anyone who hears it.
“Like the song says, hopefully, ‘There’ll come a time when you get yours and I get mine,’” Lisko said.
Pictured at top: Turbo Lovers are Keith Dougherty, Christian DeSantis and B.J. Lisko. They are at Past Times video arcade, where they shot the video for “Black & Blue.”