Although he’s known for his two stints — 1987-92 and currently — fronting the bands of legendary guitarist Michael Schenker, vocalist Robin McAuley has shown he’s not a one-trick pony. Even while he enjoys wearing a cowboy hat.
McAuley spent several years singing in Survivor and has played hundreds of shows with the Las Vegas All-Star covers band Raiding The Rock Vault. His latest venture may be McAuley’s most ambitious.
Today marks the release of Shake the World, the debut album of supergroup Black Swan on Frontiers Music. The band features McAuley’s vocals plus guitarist Reb Beach of Winger, Whitesnake and formerly of Dokken, longtime Dokken and Foreigner bassist Jeff Pilson and drummer Matt Starr. The album includes nine hard-hitting tunes such as the first two videos for the title track and “Big Disaster” (watch both below), a power ballad and a closer that’s a little of both.
McAuley spoke with Alamo True Metal as a member of Michael Schenker’s Temple Of Rock in March 2012 (watch here and here) and the Michael Schenker Fest in March 2018 (watch here). But our phone chat 48 hours before Black Swan’s release demonstrated that McAuley also has a slew of humorous personal-experience stories to share in and out of the musical realm.
Click the sound widget below to hear our entire conversation from Wednesday. And to learn why “there’s no B.S. in Black Swan.”
Shake the World track listing:
Shake the World
Big Disaster
Johnny Came Marching
Immortal Souls
Make It There
She's On To Us
The Rock That Rolled Away
Long Road To Nowhere
Sacred Place
Unless We Change
Divided/United