Photo by Travis Schneider
While a new breed of classic rock-influenced bands has emerged, nothing quite compares to the memorable riffs from a ’90s alt-rock guitar hero like Dean DeLeo. Whether he’s playing on newer Stone Temple Pilots material, collaborating with Nashville session player Tom Bukovac, or exploring his newest project, One More Satellite with singer/guitarist Pete Shoulder, DeLeo’s signature sound is always distinctive and exciting. It’s a sound deeply rooted in the music he grew up with from the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s.
One More Satellite came together rather quickly. DeLeo, his brother Robert (STP bassist), and Shoulder originally met over a decade ago, writing and recording an album while Stone Temple Pilots was between singers. To date, that album remains unreleased, though DeLeo hasn’t ruled out sharing it when the time is right. However, it wasn’t until about a year ago, when DeLeo found himself with some downtime and a backlog of song ideas, that he reconnected with the British vocalist.
The band’s self-titled album is out today, and upon first listen, it’s a satisfying blend of Chris Cornell-style vocals and alterna-grunge, heavily influenced by ’70s bands like Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. It’s the kind of rock record that was prevalent decades ago but has become a rarity in the last ten to twenty years.
DeLeo joined me recently to discuss the origin of the band, recording in the modern age, having his kids guest on the album, and how album release day is still a thrill.
Is it true that this album originally started off as an instrumental album?
DEAN: It did. I had a fair amount of time on my hands. Tom Bukovac and I had done the Trip the Witch record, and his schedule is really busy, and my schedule is also very busy with STP. I just had a lot of material I wanted to record. Fortunately, my good friend Ryan Williams, is an integral part of not only One More Satellite but Trip the Witch. Also, when STP records, he’s a big part of that. He only lives about eight minutes from me, so I had a lot of time on my hands, and I just had a lot of material kicking around. I just went and recorded it.
And the songs that you recorded with Ryan, did Pete add vocals to those songs or did you scrap what you were working on and start fresh once you decided to collaborate?
DEAN: Pete sang on those instrumental songs. There were some other things that lent themselves towards an instrumental because I would play guitar over the verse as a melody. So those things were put aside, and then I went on a different path and started writing to more or less cater for Pete to sing on.
Throughout the different projects you’ve done, do you write the music and then hand it over to whoever is singing? Did you have this stuff over to Pete and say, “Go crazy,” or did you say, “Here are some themes I’m looking for on the album, can you write lyrics around those themes?”
DEAN: Well, I can take that back to STP. Robert and I would always just hand stuff over to Scott, and we would generally talk about song titles. As those guys would allow me to do what I wanted and let my consciousness come through, I thought it’s only respectful to let the person that’s contributing do the same. On Trip the Witch, when we sent that song to Jon Anderson (Yes), we had a working title called “Saturn We Miss You.” We sent that to Jon, and I mentioned that we were using that title, and he tapped into it. Jon really tapped into that song, and we wound up keeping the working title, “Saturn We Miss You.”
There were a few things on the One More Satellite album that I just mentioned to Pete, for instance, “Can of Worms.” I said, “This would be a cool title,” and he tapped into that. But for the most part, Pete ran with it lyrically.
Working with Jon, I imagine you sent him tracks.
DEAN: He did not record with us. We sent him the song.
For this album, did you and Pete get into a studio together or did you send him tracks to add his stuff to?
DEAN: Pete and I were in the studio for a little while. He came over here at the beginning of this, and I showed him a bunch of stuff. It was kind of the weeding time, you know, “You digging this? You dig this? You want me to proceed with this?” He’s in England, and he came back over and cut vocals for “Drowning Out The Sun,” “Willow May,” and “Can of Worms.” The rest of the record he did from England. I had sent him very, very raw versions of the songs, just me playing guitar into a phone, like, “Hey, you dig this?” And we talked about the arrangements. It was pretty much like that. The arrangements went pretty well because when you’re not in the same room together, you’re rolling the dice to some extent, hoping it’s going to work vocally, because the song should really be tailored around the vocal. Miraculously, it did, and it was very smooth.
Is the remote recording a product of COVID and the world we live in now, or were you doing stuff like this before, sending tracks around pre-COVID?
DEAN: The last record we did with Scott for STP was made out of two separate studios. Scott was in one studio with Don Was, and we were in another studio cutting the music and would send it to Scott. So it’s nothing new, especially with the new forms of recording technology. Stuff can fly around via email, and it’s really simple and easy and effective.
Do you feel like you’re missing anything, though? Is there any magic lost by not being in the same room?
DEAN: No, not at all. I tend to like it more. I really like it because, as I said earlier with Ryan Williams, I’m alone. I’m with him, and it allows me to not feel I’m under a time constraint. Everyone in STP is a guitar player, so it’s always, “Hey, man, why don’t you try this guitar? Hey, man, do this!” And I’m like, “Dude, can I try this first?”
Your kids are on this record, too. Was their experience the same thing? Like, you said, “Here are the keys, drive down to Ryan’s house and record your stuff”? Or were you in the studio with them?
DEAN: June was at Ryan’s. She just did that vocal for “Your Call” at Ryan’s, but we’re unable to cut drums at Ryan’s. We can only cut keyboards, guitars, or vocals. He’s just not set up to do drums. When Rocco played drums, we went to a studio. We’ll give them a little plug: Stag Street Studio out in Van Nuys, or I guess Chatsworth. We booked a great studio, by the way. We went out there, and our good pal, Jarett Borba, had some drums set up. I spoke to him prior to going in, told him what I wanted, and he had a lovely kit set up for us. We went in, Rocco had the songs a few weeks prior so he was well-seasoned, and we knocked out those three songs in a few hours.
Are you a multi-instrumentalist? Do you give him some tips on how you want it to sound, or does he go in and you just let him do his thing?
DEAN: Rocco plays everything, you know. I’m not proficient enough to lay down a drum track by any means. I would have to dub over a kick drum and a snare. No, but he went in and did a great job, and as a dad, that was a really incredible moment for me to be able to do that with my son.
For sure. Is that the first time the two of you have recorded something that’s going to come out? I’m guessing maybe you’ve recorded together for home family stuff.
DEAN: We did do a lot of recording at home, just into the phone, him playing piano and me playing guitar, or both of us playing guitar. Whenever he comes over, guitars come out, and we sit around and do that for a while. Three hours have passed. It’s something we really enjoy doing.
But this will be the first time his name shows up next to yours on an album cover, though.
DEAN: Yes, and to see my kids credited on a record is a big one.
*Oh, yeah, I’m a father. I totally get it.
DEAN: Big one, man.
I grew up on ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s rock. I miss guitar heroes. It doesn’t seem like there are out there in current bands, at least not the way there were when I was growing up and playing air guitar in front of my bedroom mirror using my mom’s metal yardstick and pretending to be Jimmy Page or Eddie Van Halen.
DEAN: Let’s get one thing straight, Chip: you should have been using a tennis racket. Let’s face it, man, the decade of the ‘70s was guitar music. That’s what was primarily being played. Even if you go back to just popular music, what we were calling popular music, what you would hear on AM radio, I remember one summer just hearing “Heart of Gold,” “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” “Wild Horses”—three legendary songs, right? So, being born in 1961, I openly and gleefully drank it in. I absorbed that, and I had older brothers and sisters. I had two older sisters and an older brother, and what they were playing was very influential on both Robert and I. In my brother’s room, I was hearing Hendrix firsthand in 1968. I was seven years old, and I just heard Hendrix coming out of my brother’s room, like, “Whoa! What is that?” And then he’d be playing The Doors and Iron Butterfly. Then in my sisters’ rooms, they’d be playing Mountain, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Neil Young, a lot of Cat Stevens, and then my mom would be playing Andy Williams, The Carpenters, Joao Gilberto. There was a lot of music being played in the household at once.
Speaking of legendary songs, two hours ago I was at the auto repair shop picking my car up, and they’ve got the classic hard rock station on. I knew I’d be talking to you a little later and while I’m there, the radio station plays STP’s “Wicked Garden.” Do you ever take a step back and think that, at any given moment, your guitar work and the songs you played on are being heard somewhere?
DEAN: I don’t think of that too much, but I’m surely affected by it. I got in my car last week, and for some reason, I never leave the radio on. The radio was on, and our song “Creep” came on, and I was able to really listen to that peacefully. I was able to listen to that and just be simply a listener. It was nice hearing it, and it brings up so many more feelings, hearing Scott’s voice and so on.
It’s got to be pretty crazy to think that here we are 30-plus years after some of your songs were released, and they’re still getting played on the radio. I can’t imagine when you were starting out that you ever dreamed that those STP songs would be on the radio on a Tuesday night at an auto repair shop in Columbus, Ohio in the year 2025.
DEAN: I’m going to be really transparent, you know, when that does happen to me—I don’t have the radio on too much—but it’s thrilling for me. I dig hearing one of our songs come on the radio. I heard “Vasoline” come on the radio, and again, I was able to listen to it, probably because it’s 30 years later, but I was able to listen to it as a listener, not critiquing like, “Oh, should I have used this guitar?” or “Is the kick drum loud enough?” And I was impressed. We owe a lot of that sonic adventure to Brandan O’Brien. It was not just the four of us. It was a real treat making those records with him. He knew where our heads were at. We did not want to grab any flavor-of-the-month sound. There were a lot of certain sounds being used sonically at that time, but we just wanted to make music that if you heard it 30, 40 years later, would sound current.
The unfortunate thing in the world we live in is that I’m hearing a Stone Temple Pilots song from 30 years ago. I probably won’t hear a One More Satellite song on the local hard rock station. Are you adjusting to how radio works these days? Does it matter a whole lot to you whether people are hearing it on the radio, or are you just happy that people can pick up their phones and hear it whenever they want?
DEAN: Well, man, it’s changed a lot more than just the world of radio. The whole thing is a different animal nowadays. I don’t know that I’m really a part of that any longer. I had my time with that. I’m just very grateful and feel very blessed that I have the ability to go in and make a record. I’ll tell you something else, man, whenever I leave Ryan’s, I can pretty much get a song together in a day. I can cut a fair amount of the guitars, cut the bass, possibly do a solo. When I’m leaving his place at night, and I’m in my car, and I kind of just hear the work I did for that day, I really am so grateful and so thankful that I have this ability to do that. It’s really touching to me. I had this thing that started out as something playing or working something out on guitar, and then to come out of the speakers.
It’s certainly not apples to apples, but I’m the same way. I’ll go to Barnes & Noble and pick up a copy of The Big Takeover and see my name and be like, “I can’t believe that words that started in my head are now available in every bookstore!” To be a creative person and to see your stuff out in the world is pretty crazy.
DEAN: It’s interesting to hear you say that because maybe a big part of that is because we love what we do. Followed up with that is gratitude. It sounds corny or silly, but that’s kind of where it’s at.
With new albums, I always try to listen all the way through the first time. I know we live in an algorithm world where songs and playlists are recommended. You might hear a song here or there on a playlist the same way that I heard a song when I was growing up on the radio or MTV. You’ve released two songs in advance of the album release and those are songs that you decided to spotlight. Are there any songs on the album that maybe won’t be released as singles but that you feel are sort of “hidden in plain sight” favorite songs that deserve some love? For me, it’s the song “Pull Back the Veil.” I kind of hope you don’t release that as a single because I feel like it’s a great payoff for people who make it to the back half of the album.
DEAN: Well, it sure is sequenced in that spot, isn’t it? The second to the last song. It kind of holds that spot for an album track. And if I can elaborate on that song a little bit, I actually sang something on that song. I gave it to Pete without my vocal on. I said, “Pete, just do your thing,” and that’s what I got back. It’s just one of those things, you know. We spoke about being in the same room, but there’s almost this element of surprise, and you don’t know what you’re going to get back. The same was with Trip the Witch. Tom and I would send stuff back and be like, “Oh, my gosh! This is so great,” even beyond any expectations, because there was this sort of guessing game within your own mind, like, “Well, what’s he going to possibly do to that?” Tom and I referred to it as, “It was like Christmas morning.” And the same was with Pete. I would get stuff back from him if we weren’t in the same room. I would get stuff back, and I’d be just overjoyed, really knocked back by what he would do.
I don’t know if you want to admit it, but were there any songs that he sent back that took you a few listens?
DEAN: No, I was usually on board with the first line. This first line of delivery. I mean, and when I use the word delivery, I mean melodically, lyrically, and his delivery. Pete’s just one of those singers, man, that’s really, really fulfilling for me.
How is he not more well-known? His vocals are great. They complement your style of music and your writing. This album really hits a lot of checkmarks for me with its ‘70s, ‘80s, ‘90s rock sound. My first listen to this record, I was like, “Where did they tap this talent from? I’ve never heard of this guy before.”
DEAN: He’s great. Pete had some success with a band called The Union throughout Europe. But, I didn’t really know Pete until (photographer) Ross Haflin was very ambitious about Robert and I meeting Pete. I thank the good Lord above that I did because he not only has that level of talent, and he’s an extraordinary musician, an incredible writer himself, musically, lyrically, and melodically, he’s also a great guitar player, great drummer, great keyboards. He’s got all the things. I don’t know if you know, Robert did that record Lessons Learned that Pete sang on a few songs. I’m very blessed to have met him and have the luxury of being able to write with him and make music.
Did you have to build a relationship with him when you first met? Did you guys hang out, become friends, and then eventually work your way into the studio, or did Ross introduce you, and you guys were like, “Hey, let’s just play a Zeppelin song or an Aerosmith song”?
DEAN: The first time we did meet in person, it was only for a few hours, because he lives in England. We met again several months later in the studio. We went right to work before we even spent any time together. But over the years, we have had the opportunity to spend more time together just on a friendly basis and not doing music. Over the last several months, we’ve been really honed in on this.
Are there any tour plans?
DEAN: Well, you know, I hate to say something I don’t fully have etched in stone, but if you’re asking me if we’d like to, yes, I hope to do some shows in November. At least one in Los Angeles, but I’d like to just go up the coast, maybe from LA up to Oregon or something.
Do you still look forward to album release day? Do you have it marked on the calendar? Are you going to go out to the local record store and make sure they have a copy, and even hold it up and say, “This is me,” or is it more like you’re just pushing this thing out into the world and then figuring out what you’re going to have for lunch that day?
DEAN: I’ll tell you, man, it still is a big deal for me. One of my favorite things to do was, going back to the early ‘90s when record stores were abundant, when you had these great Tower Records all around town. We had one here where I’m at now. We had one in Hollywood, and one of my favorite things to do was go to Tower Records, go to the S section, and buy my record. It was really exciting. And yeah, I’m thrilled about July 18th, man, I’m actually thrilled about it because it’s something we’ve been working on for a fair amount of time. Now that it’s all done, when you step in to make a record, it’s a process. Some work faster than others, but I’ve heard some people taking up to a year or two to make a record, and that’s not really where we’re at. But it’s a process, and it takes a little time. You surely have to exercise some patience, but it’s also a labor of love. So yeah, I’m excited for people to hear it.
How did you come up with the name One More Satellite?
DEAN: I got the name from Mr. Ken Andrews and company—*Greg Edwards* and Kellii Scott. Failure is an amazing band. On The Heart Is A Monster record, there’s a song called “The Counterfeit Sky” that has that line in it, “One More Satellite.” I love the way Ken delivers that line. I love that song. I thought that that would be a good band name. When you jump onto a band name, the first thing you do is see if it’s available and it was, so it was quite a relief. Pete and I both really loved it. The same kind of things happened with Trip the Witch. It was from a line in a song Scott and I wrote called “Ride the Cliché.”
You were in that Failure documentary. I interviewed Kellii in 2022 and he was telling me about the documentary then and that it had already been years in the making. It took a while to come out.
DEAN: I think The Heart Is A Monster came out in 2015. I was instantly a fan. When I first heard that record, the first song I heard off it was “Mulholland Drive,” and I immediately called Ken, and I was like, “That is a masterpiece. My gosh!” I heard that song, and I couldn’t believe it was coming out of the speakers. I was really knocked back. Ken mixed the Army of Anyone record. And Ken mixed STP’s Butterfly record, the first record we did with Jeff (Gutt). So yeah, we go back a little ways with Ken, and of course, I’m a huge fan.
Yeah, that Army of Anyone record is great. I love that record.
DEAN: Thank you. I’ll tell you what, man, I didn’t know this. Ken told me this fairly recently. We did a gig at this club in Los Angeles, in East Los Angeles, called The Shamrock. Of course, it’s no longer there, and it was a very weird club. It was not very deep, like the back wall of the club was maybe 25 feet away, but it was real wide, a big rectangle. We had been playing around town, and I think we were still called Mighty Joe Young at the time, and Don Muller, who was with William Morris at the time, called his friend Tom Carolan, who was with Atlantic Records, and he said, “You should go see this band.” Tom came out and saw us at The Shamrock on this particular night, and there were nine people in the club, four of them were us. Ken Andrews was there that night.
Really?
DEAN: Yeah, he was there. He just told me that. He said, “I was there that night.” And I think, you know, we just played as if it was going to be our last day alive, and our dear friend Tom Carolan saw us and said, “Wow, I’m hooking up my wagon to this.”
And the rest, as they say, is history.
