D.D. VERNI & THE CADILLAC BAND has unveiled “Olivia…that’s Who!” the second single and video from their debut album “Let’s Rattle”, due out September 17 (via MVD). As with the album’s lead single and video “Cadillac Man,” the new single underlines the high-energy original swingin’ and rockin’ big-band sound from D.D. VERNI, the songwriter/founding member/bassist for heavy metal pioneers Overkill who’ve sold millions of records worldwide and have released 19 studio albums dating back to their 1985 debut album. Listen to the song, which D.D. wrote about his daughter Olivia, here and watch the quick moving video, comprised of storyboard illustrations, below.
Pre-order the album here or pre-save the album here
“While the song is about my daughter, I think it speaks to anyone who has a bubbly outgoing spirited girl in their life,” says D.D. “It could be your mom, wife or girlfriend. And I think the drawings capture the spirit of the song. The song lyric says “There’s always enough love to go round” and I think that’s the spirit of the song and the drawings. It’s about how a girl like that in your life can brighten your day and make things always seem OK.”
The band will perform first-ever live show Saturday, October 30 at the Vogel (Count Basie Center for the Arts) in Red Bank, NJ. Tickets on sale now
Verni has always dreamed of recording a big band album, as his love for the sound dates back many years. The New Jersey-based artist began by writing a fantastic collection of soon-to-be big band classics. Next, he recruited longtime BRIAN SETZER ORCHESTRA upright bassist John “Spazz” Hatton to do horn arrangements and play upright bass, while D.D. switched things up playing some guitar on the album. Then D.D. brought in the L.A.-based horn section from PHAT CAT SWINGER to play the horns and added BRIAN SETZER ORCHESTRA drummer and current DOOBIE BROTHERS member Tony Pia. Add jazz pianist Dave Moscoe and HOT ROD guitarist Damian Bacci, and you have a star-studded lineup of big band greatness that made this album shake and swing.
“Let’s Rattle” track listing:
1. Cadillac Man
2. Shake It Swing It
3. Give Me Your Number
4. Olivia…That’s Who!
5. Powerhouse
6. Cold Hearted Woman
7. School Of Rock n’ Roll
8. L-O-V-E
9. Just Say U Love Me
10. Manhattan Baby
11. Close Your Eyes and Dream
12. Ain’t That A Kick In The Head
13. The One Who Loves You
“Let’s Rattle” Album Artwork
With songs like “Cadillac Man”, “Shake It Swing It” and “Olivia…That’s Who!”, the album features 13 tracks (nine originals and four covers), was produced by Verni and mixed by Greg Reely (COLDPLAY, SARAH MCLACHLAN, OVERKILL), and recorded in Los Angeles and New Jersey.
Q&A with D.D. VERNI about the “Olivia…That’s Who!” single and video:
For the “Olivia…that’s who!” video, what inspired you to have a video created with storyboard illustrations?
That was actually my wife Lisa. She thought a storyboard following the lyrics etc. would be a cool idea for a video for that song. I had worked on many projects with an illustrator named Gery Nible for years and she suggested I call him. So I reached out and he was very excited about the idea. We went back and forth on a bunch of ideas and character development, what people should look like and the style/tone for it. I would get sketches from Gery and I would send to Lisa and she would send to Olivia hahaha…so it was a fun project to work on. I really liked her storyboard idea, where it felt more like sketches rather than finished inked and color drawings. I am a comic book fan, as well as Pixar/Disney animated film fan. I have a ton of collectable toys and such from movies, so this was great chance to do a little of that with my own song. I had done an animated video a few records back and had so much fun doing it and this one was similar. Fun to see it come to life.
While the song is about my daughter, I think it speaks to anyone who has a bubbly outgoing spirited girl in their life. It could be your mom, wife or girlfriend. And I think the drawings capture the spirit of the song. The song lyric says “There’s always enough love to go round” and I think that’s the spirit of the song and the drawings. It’s about how a girl like that in your life can brighten your day and make things always seem OK.
Who directed the video and who did the illustrations?
The video was edited by Steven Bartashev who was the editor on the Cadillac Man video we just put out. I was really happy with how that turned out so I contacted him about doing this one as well. The illustrations were done by Gery Nible. As I said Gery is a friend who I have worked with on a bunch of projects before. We’ve done album art, t-shirts, all kinds of stuff. He has a similar DNA to mine as far as stuff we like and so the process of doing this was pretty easy. He really ran with the idea, I thought we could get by on a dozen or so drawings and I think it wound up more like 60+ . He even sent a video kind of walking us through it and his ideas which made it very easy to visualize what it would be like in the end.
You’ve said that your second daughter Olivia told you: “‘where’s my song!’ and then on her 16th birthday I wrote and recorded “Olivia…that’s who!” What does Olivia think of her song and the video (if she’s seen it)?
She loves it! For years she would run around and tell people she has her own theme song. Now she has a video to go along with it.
