The Chicago-based rock band talks performing overseas, growth, their greatest-hits album and their unexpected cover of “Gimme Some Lovin’”
The clock read 3 a.m. and Tim King found himself battling a bout of insomnia. As many insomniacs are prone to do, he flipped on the TV. The pixelated image of Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi from “Blues Brothers” presented itself on the screen, so King settled in to watch it for the nth time.
“It came to the part where they are playing at Bob’s Country Bunker and jump into the song with beer bottles flying and craziness,” King says. “I just sat there thinking to myself ‘this would be a great song for SOiL to cover.’ We are from Chicago, we love that movie, the ‘Blues Mobile’ was a Mount Prospect (Illinois) police car and we practiced in Mount Prospect for the first 12 years of the band. So it all tied up pretty well.”
The song, “Gimme Some Lovin’”, is featured on their greatest hits album Scream: The Essentials. As King states, the song came together quickly and seamlessly, despite it being an “off the wall” choice and featuring female vocals for the first time.
The song title, mixed with the female vocals, makes for an apt tune for gentlemen’s clubs—something King says are part of the culture of being a rock musician.
“We figured after 20 years of being a band, we could say ‘screw it’ and do what we wanted,” King says about “Gimme Some Lovin’”. “There have been many up and downs, but I think that the fans and the fact that we believe in this band still is the reason we keep going. We still have a fire and burn to do this. I truly feel that SOiL now is bigger, badder, and stronger than it ever has been.
“Plus after all these years we know what we should sound like, have mastered the craft of our sound, and become better musicians and better people along the way,” King continues.
Along with self improvement, the path to success has included moments of self awareness. King says he has twice experienced moments that constitute “I made it” epiphanies. The first was opening for Ozzy Osbourne, Rob Zombie and Mudvayne at Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois—where every member of SOiL saw his first concert. The other came playing in the UK at the Download Festival in 2006.
“There were 55,000 people going crazy and when (popular SOiL track) ‘Halo’ kicked it, it was just a sea of people and limbs and everyone signing the words back so loud that we could barely hear ourselves on stage,” recounts King.
As a matter of fact, SOiL will be back in the UK in February with Alien Ant Farm and Local H and King says the band couldn’t be more excited.
“The UK has always been sort of a ‘graceland’ for us,” he says. “The thing about fans in the UK and Europe is that they may hop on trends but they don’t forget about the bands they love when the next trend comes rolling in. They stick by the bands that were their favorites for life.”
– by Eugenio Torrens
