Pentagram Legend Bobby Liebling Chats About New Band The Limit and Working with Members of His Favourite Bands

Consisting of members of legendary punk instigators The Stooges, the founders of doom rock, Pentagram, legendary NYC punk originators Testors, and infamous Portuguese metal band Dawnrider, The Limit are set to release their debut album Caveman Logic on April 9th. Having grabbed an earful of this rock n’ roll masterpiece, we caught up with frontman Bobby Leibling to find out more about the band, the music, and much more.

Thanks for your time Bobby, how is life treating you at the moment?

Bobby Liebling: “It’s actually been a pretty bleak winter with the coronavirus closing everything down, but I’ve been a survivor to this point, so I hope I’ll continue on for a while at least!”

You’ve got a new album coming out, tell us all about The Limit…

“The Limit is a band that consists of some very well-seasoned people such as Sonny Vincent from the NYC band Testors, Jimmy Recca from The Stooges, plus the other two people, Hugo Conim and Joao Pedro Ventura who are from the Portuguese heavy hard rock band called Dawn Rider. The music I would call a punk and heavy rock fusion. Also there are some great guest guitar players on the album. It has twelve songs and we recorded it in Portugal last February right before the pandemic. It will be out April 9th and I’m very proud of it.”

How long did the new record take to come together and how was it recording an album over the past twelve months?

“Sonny sent us his basic studio demos of ten songs and Hugo sent two of his. It took some months learning and organizing to put the material into workable order. Jimmy was working daily nailing what he would do on the bass. Once we arrived in Portugal (the band having never played together whatsoever) we actually only had 4 four hour rehearsals to organize the arrangements and get the songs worked up. And of course it took some passion and work to get the lyrics right. We had a very focused and concentrated period in Portugal where we got twelve songs finished ready to do in the studio. It was pretty hectic.

Still in Portugal after the rehearsals the basic tracks were all recorded in 3 eight hour sessions and 1 four hour recording session. Later, a few various guest lead guitar players flew in their parts from various foreign locations and they were mixed in. The mixes had to be sent to Sonny and for the final rounds Sonny and I commiserated on them! I would estimate the album took approximately five months from actual first note until completed final mix was done. But that duration was a direct result of COVID-19 showing up and a prohibition on travel just before the extra guitar work and final mix.”

You all come from punk, doom, rock backgrounds. What was your vision for how The Limit was going to sound?

“We were hoping it sound great and I think it does but we had no idea what it would sound like. We had never played together in our lives. We just had a basic concept/idea of how the style would present itself.”

Artwork for ‘Caveman Logic’ by The Limit

Like we said, the album is out in April, can you tell us a bit about it and what we can expect from it?

“Well there aren’t any ballads and the album has a hell of a lot of ‘fuck you’ attitude but it also deals with a lot of finesse in the fact that we kind of crossed the punk style with the flair of today’s killer guitar players (a la Michael Schenker type of thing with Fabian Dee Dammers). Some of the songs have real raunchy parts and some of them have finery. It’s a very hard thing to describe because what we really accomplished in the end was fusing a few different type of things. I think one of the fine points about it is that, not only does the album have no clunkers but it has an awful lot of hooks and memorable choruses which I was not used to doing previously. You’ll just have to see for yourself. I love it!”

The single “Black Sea” is out now as a taster. What has the reaction been like?

“So far it’s gotten an awful lot of very positive reviews and it’s gotten many views on YouTube and some say it shows off everyone at their finest point. I’m very excited for the whole thing to get released.”

The lineup has a long and influential history with members of Pentagram, The Stooges. and Testors. How did your musical paths cross?

“A mutual acquaintance of Sonny, Jimmy, and myself introduced the three of us and Sonny suggested the two guys from Portugal. Sonny had musical endeavours with our other guitar player Hugo Conim previous to The Limit.”

From your perspective, were you a fan of bands like The Stooges and Testors?

“I’ve always been an absolute huge fan of the Stooges and when our friend turned me on to Sonny, which wasn’t until 2015, I immediately dug it because I love and I have always enjoyed all the classic punk bands. It’s my type of attitude, having started out playing music in the ‘60s when the garage sound was originally happening. That morphed into punk as far as I’m concerned.”

Going back to your formative years, do you remember the first records that made an impact on your life?

“That’s an easy one. It started in the doowop era with the tougher-sounding solo acts like Elvis, Dion, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard who were all really blues-based and the first bands I listen to were greaser bands Link Wray, The Ventures… I like all the rough-and-tumble things Standells, Sir Douglas Quintet, Paul Revere, and The Raiders, The Kinks, The Stones – all the hard-edge stuff. The biggest influence on my writing in my entire life is the Bonniwell Music Machine, Sean Bonniwell being the most bummed-out, downer-sounding, desperate, hopeless writer I’ve probably ever heard to this day. And what an incredible voice! Wow!”

Looking long-term what are your thoughts on where The Limit will continue?

“I certainly hope that we get to record another album with a bigger budget and possibly even do some touring… and sell a million records!”

Given the different bands involved, what do you learn or get out of working with artists from different genres?

“I can’t really qualify myself as working with people from different genres of music because I’ve always been a glam-punk at heart and attitude and portrayed that somewhat on stage. But I’ve always played in powerhouse heavy bands… and The Limit allows for both!”

Thanks for your time Bobby and good luck with The Limit. Over to you for the final words…

“I just want to thank you for taking the time out to do this interview and I hope everybody will jump on the wagon and dig what we’re doing and try to stick with us, and take it to The Limit.”