Thrilldriver Celebrates 10 Years with Searing New Album, NYC Anniversary Show  

Seeing NYC rock band Thrilldriver is like seeing Mötley Crüe, but in a grittier, standing-room-only nightclub setting. The five-piece group is one of the Big Apple’s best kept secrets, bringing a big-arena feel to more intimate spaces, with music that satisfies the craving for ’80s metal and high-intensity rock n’ roll.

That’s not by accident. The band’s brain trust — founding members and guitarists Tony Calabro and Michelangelo Quirinale, and lead vocalist Zoe Friedman — are fans of maximum impact, embracing modelers that emulate loud Marshall stacks, and modding their Fender Stratocasters to deliver fatter tones. Friedman, a true powerhouse in the vein of Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler or Heart’s Ann Wilson, needs little more than a microphone, her trusty Sennheiser in-ear monitors, and the occasional keytar to make a massive impression.

Calabro, who’s also a professional sound engineer, is the secret weapon who captured Thrilldriver’s live experience on Battle Worn, the band’s latest EP, which comes out March 16. The seven-track recording offers listeners a mix of melodic rock anthems loaded with layered guitar riffs and earsplitting solos, a thunderous rhythm section, and vocals that simmer and soar. My favorite so far: “On And On” and “The Wall.” (Pre-save the album here)

Rockmommmy recently caught up with Calabro and Quirinale to talk about their 10-year-anniversary show on March 16 at DROM (85 Avenue A, New York, NY 10009), the new album, gear, gigs, and juggling life stuff like kids, marriage to busy day jobs.

[SEE RELATED: Thrilldriver, NYC’s Best New Metal Band, on Making Music, Going Wild and Staying Sane]

Rockmommy: I know you both are metal fans and you met while working at the New York City Guitar School. How did the band get started?

Tony Calabro: I always wanted to be in a band with Michelangelo since I met him, because we just hit it off as far as music taste. Watching him with his rock band kids at the [NYC Guitar School] camps, I’m just like, ‘man, this guy gets it.’ So the first thing I did was ask Michelangelo, like, ‘Hey, I’m gonna start this thing. I’d love for you to be part of it. Like, what do you think?’ And I was nervous about it, because I really respected him as a musician. And he was like, ‘yeah, man, let’s do it!’ He was excited. So that was the start. The three of us — me, my friend Drew [on bass] and Michelangelo — started to work on the songs. And then we got my drummer friend involved, and we found Zoe [our singer], a few months in, and rest is history.

Michelangelo “Moxxxie” Quirinale: It was cool for me to get that outreach email from Tony, because I feel like, at that time, I was doing all these freelance gigs, but there was nothing pushing my playing. I almost was a little stagnant, I think, as a musician. I was paying the bills, I was teaching, doing gigs for other people, but it was like, ‘Oh, wait, I can play my own riffs and solos and stuff?’ So I was super psyched to get asked do the Thrilldriver thing.

Tony Calabro: So, I found Zoe because she was the singer in a Top Gun tribute band that my friend was in. I had seen them, and I’m like, ‘man, they’re awesome!’ And then when I put the word out about needing a singer for our band, that bass player from that Top Gun band is like, ‘dude, you should ask Zoe from Viper, because she’d be really into this!’ And then we have Jaime [Garamella] our bass player, and Joe [Abrams], our current drummer. I think they like playing this music! But I think Jaime has more eclectic taste, maybe, than I do.

Rockmommy: I remember the first time I saw Thrilldriver at Mercury Lounge. It was 2015 or 2016 and I had recently had kids. I heard “Vicious” and it was, like, this “Kickstart My Heart” moment. Can you tell us about your songwriting process? Has it evolved over the last 10 years?

Tony Calabro: Usually, the seed of it comes from demos that I make in my studio. So I’ll make a demo of the whole song, usually I’ll do the drums and everything.

Michelangelo Quirinale: Tony’s demos are great, by the way. Some of them sound like a finished product.

Tony Calabro: I’ll have the song structure down. But then, you know, [Michelangelo] will really take it and put his own flavor on it, and then he’ll do all his solos and stuff himself, and he layers his guitars and Joe, the drummer, will change things a lot, like everyone kind of is injecting their own thing.

But this album, the one that’s coming out, all the song structures were kind of set, and some of it, like I wrote the lyrics and the vocals and everything, and then Zoe takes it and makes it actually good. For a couple songs on this, she wrote some of the lyrics too. She and I would work together on it, and send demos back and forth.

Michelangelo Quirinale: It works, because we’ve been collaborating now for, I guess, a decade!

Rockmommy: I want to talk about your gear because, you know, I love hearing what people love to play with.

Michelangelo Quirinale: I have this one [Fender] Strat that I use in Thrilldriver I bought when I moved to New York. I was like, ‘I need a Strat, because I’m a working musician in New York.’ And I just bought it, not knowing much about it, and then I modded it, and it’s a super fat, thick-sounding guitar that just works really well for Thrilldriver. So I keep it tuned down half a step, and that’s like 90, 95% of the stuff on the album that’s recorded with that guitar.

And then during COVID, I went to the dark side. I started using modelers. I got a Fractal system, and at first I got it just to record with. I was like, ‘well, I need to record, and I need to be able to teach and, like, I can’t be cranking an amp in my apartment with kids at 1 a.m.,’ but then I was like, ‘oh, man, this is all the sounds I love, and it sounds just like a cranked Marshall!’ Sound engineers love them. It’s been the most stable gear setup I’ve probably had in my whole time since I’ve been in New York.

Tony Calabro: We both kind of made that switch from real amps to the modelers around the same time. So now we both have the modelers. I have a different one. He has the Fractal and I have one by Atomic Amplifier. But, yeah, it is funny. Like, we never used to really get specific comments about that, but now I feel like almost every show, someone is like, ‘wow, the guitar sounds so big,’ and it’s funny because it’s so much smaller, actually, than it used to be. We used to have stacks and stuff.

Michelangelo Quirinale: In a club, it’s easier for a good sound person to mix the modelers. I have these amazing Marshall amps, but they really can’t be put to the level they need to be to sound great at these small clubs. That’s what I like about the modeler. We can get this thunderous dimed Marshall sound without it actually being on 10.

Rockmommy: Are you a Strat person as well, Tony?

Tony Calabro: I change guitars a lot. I currently have a Strat-style guitar that I’m using for the band, a Strat-shaped guitar, but with humbuckers. I’ll always keep whatever guitar I’m doing for Thrilldriver tuned down a half step, just so that it stays there and is stable there, because we tuned down everything a half step.

Rockmommy: Like, who decided in the like, 80s or 90s that all the metal bands have to tune down in a half step?

Tony Calabro: Whatever singer didn’t want to sing that high! When Zoe found out that that was a thing, she’s like, “Do it! Let’s do it!” But our first EP was in standard tuning. On recordings, I layered most of that new album with a Les Paul. That’s kind of like my main guitar outside of Thrilldriver. Most acoustic guitar [parts] are done with my Gibson acoustic so I’m kind of torn between the two camps. I think there’s a time and a place for both.

Rockmommy: So I see you guys played with Dead Sara? I’m a little obsessed with them.

Tony Calabro: We were like, ‘oh my God, I can’t believe we’re doing this show!’ That wasn’t a great show though, playing wise and sound wise. It was very rushed, and we set up in front of their stuff. For me, when we did Gramercy Theater playing with Tragedy … that was a really good show. That was just so packed and people were so responsive.

Michelangelo Quirinale: The sound there is really great for hard rock and metal bands. Not all venues of that size can handle the volume, and they managed to make it sound good.

Tony Calabro: The other thing that’s just a funny thing about the gigs is the gig that never was, which I was so excited about — we supposed to open for Sebastian Bach on Block Island in Rhode Island. Then it got canceled it because of a hurricane.

Rockmommy: So you guys have so much going on now, compared with when you started. You live in different states, and have kids, marriages, other musical projects. Do you have any, any plans to tour?

Michelangelo Quirinale: I think the push has been to get this album done, and that’s been enough of a challenge.

Tony Calabro: It’s hard to get everybody together like this, because we’re [more] spread out — but it’s why we’re really excited about the show with Light Brand and Trashing Violet in March!

Rockmommy: How long did it take you to record the new album?

Tony Calabro: We’re pretty systematic. Michelangelo and I do guitars that that are just scratch tracks and that’s for the drummer to play to. it’s a spread-out process. It’s not like one day, it’s multiple days. Then someone else masters it, because I like to have somebody objective at that phase. But I record it and mix it.

Michelangelo Quirinale: Tony is a great engineer, he knows what we want to sound like. I recorded my guitars at home. That’s part of why it took longer, because I wasn’t under the gun. But I feel like I’m happier with the guitars, because I could sit there and just take, like, eight hours to get the perfect solo.

Rockmommy: What is your advice for staying together the band? Like if you were to mentor a younger band, and they ask you this question, what would you say?

Tony Calabro: I think just like any relationship, it’s [about] accepting the ebbs and flows of it. You don’t have to try to control it so much. Having mutual respect for everyone and where they’re at, you know?

Michelangelo Quirinale: There’s got to be that chemistry, right? Not just in terms of musically, but also personality wise.

Tony Calabro: Zoe and Michelangelo and I have been the only constants the whole time. And we call that the brain trust of the band. I think it’s just mutual respect, and just the desire to still play with each other because you like each other, and you like the stuff you’re making together.

Rockmommy: Any last thoughts about being a musician, or a musician with kids?

Tony Calabro: Much respect to you guys for doing it and being parents, it’s so good for the kids being able to see you doing your thing

Michelangelo Quirinale: I think it makes you a better parent when you’re doing stuff you love, right? Think of all the people that have a hard time getting up, because they’re not pursuing their passion. I’d rather my kids see me grinding and doing this, but being happy and doing things I enjoy, rather than maybe just work a job I hate or something.

Interview by Marisa Torrieri Bloom, founder and editor of Rockmommy.