Rick Springfield: Stripped Down

“Light This Party Up,” the high energy track that leads off Rocket Science, singer-guitarist Rick Springfield’s 18th studio album which will be released on February 19, began as a potential track that he wrote for Ricki and the Flash. “They were looking for an original song,” he shares. “But it wasn’t a song that Meryl Streep’s character would have written. The one they chose was actually really great — it was perfect.” While Springfield was filming the movie in New York, he found himself with a whole weekend to kill, so he went looking for a chance to collaborate with someone and hooked up with guitarist Tad Kubler of the Hold Steady, who knew a friend of Springfield’s manager. “I went over there not being sure what would come out. It’s always a little bit nervous when you first hook up with a new writer,” he says. “But they’re usually pretty open and in it for the same reasons. So we sat around for a couple of hours and came up with a riff and then I brought that home and [collaborator and co-producer] Matt [Bissonette] and I wrote the rest of the song ['Miss Mayhem'] around that riff." Jay DeMarcus of Rascal Flatts also worked with Springfield, co-writing “Down” during a chilly time in Atlanta when the pair were both shooting an episode of the Drop Dead Diva television show that got delayed by an ice storm in early 2014. The new album features an interesting hybrid of the giant guitar-driven pop hooks and layered sound that he is well-known for, mixed with a distinct country vibe and instrumentation. The new songs should translate well at tonight's show. (Matt Wardlaw)