Matt Sorum Wants to Bring Back Rock Stars With Diamond Baby — Interview

This is the first time I've ever played in a band under an alter ego, but to be honest, I wish I would have done it a long time ago because it would have saved me from a lot of trouble," laughs Matt Sorum. Noisecreep is on the phone with the Velvet Revolver and former Guns N' Roses drum master who is promoting Diamond Baby, the new band in which he plays under the stage name Baron Von Storm. Also featuring the sexed-up vocals of his wife Ace Harper [aka Ace of Diamonds], the quintet belt out the kind of high-energy dance rock that wouldn't sound out of place next to Blondie, T-Rex and Garbage, in your music collection.

"Diamond Baby has been a lot of fun for me because we've been able to experiment with a lot of different sounds and textures. Once we started working on the music, I hooked up with Lisa Harriton [aka Lisa the Lover] who used to play keyboards in the Smashing Pumpkins. She's got some vintage keyboards and they're sounding great on this new stuff. I've always loved groups like Depeche Mode and Ultravox, but I've never had the musical avenue to explore that kind of thing. In Diamond Baby we do some of that kind of stuff, but we also incorporate live drums, hard guitars and an overall rock feel that helps sets it apart from some of those '80s artists," says Sorum.

Diamond Baby's first single, a sleazy rave up that serves as the group's debut single and although the song has a strip club-ready groove to it, Sorum says the band's upcoming album will feature a variety of moods and textures. "The record's got everything from Kate Bush and Pink Floyd types of feel to King Crimson-like guitar stuff on it. Years ago I played with Tori Amos and we had EBow in some of the songs and on this Diamond Baby album, there's a little of that.

"It's not that I get sick of playing straight-up rock 'n' roll, but it's nice to be able to try all of these different things on this album. We didn't let anything get in the way of the experimentation. But it's all still really catchy and fun. I needed something else to challenge myself and Diamond Baby became that."

Watch 'The Last Rockstar' from Diamond Baby

Diamond Baby recently released a video for 'The Last Rockstar' and from what Sorum is telling Noisecreep, shooting the thing was just as fun as it looked. "We sat around one night conceptualizing this party scene in our minds and that's when we came up with the alter egos. I said, "I want to be Baron Von Storm and have my two French bulldogs." So we did that [laughs]. I also wanted hot chicks dressed like military girls. A lot of times when I come up with music, I like to think of what the video would look like. I come from that '80s mindset where music videos were a lot of fun and bigger than life.

"Not enough rock bands are doing that right now with their videos. The only people doing that are rappers. They'll come up with a video before they even write the damn song [laughs]. In 'The Last Rockstar,' we ask the question, "Where are the rock stars?" Rock 'n' roll people don't even say that they're rock stars anymore. People like P!nk do it, but no one that's playing rock music does.

"When Maroon 5 comes out with a song called 'Moves Like Jagger' and I'm like, "Give me a break!" Diamond Baby, the band, and the video we made for 'The Last Rockstar' is in the spirit of what I think is missing right now in the rock world. We need our rock stars back."

Check out www.diamondbabyband.com to check out more songs from Diamond Baby's upcoming album.