Review Fix Exclusive: Stephen Wrench Talks ‘Burning Bridges’ And More

August 14, 2020 Patrick Hickey Jr. Music 0

Review Fix chats with singer/songwriter Stephen Wrench, who discusses his new single, “Burning Bridges.”

About Stephen Wrench:

Fast emerging as a recording artist after 45+ years performing with, managing, producing shows, operating Musik and Film and Musik Radio Promotions and creating hits for both legends and indie greats, Stephen Wrench likes to describe himself as a “gentle old soul” who’s usually slow to anger. Yet in this unprecedented, watershed year of 2020 – with its COVID-19 lockdown, resulting record unemployment and renewed racial tensions and protests fueling an unprecedented political divide – there are just moments where something’s gotta give. When the true colors of people you thought were nice and kind become the latest casualties of your Facebook friends list, the gloves just have to come off. As Wrench so powerfully and bluntly sings on his latest single, it’s time to start “Burning Bridges.” 

Review Fix: How was this song written? 

Stephen Wrench: As I read and watched all the turmoil of protests, the pandemic and political views and opinions. I see most people are having to take sides on a lot of issues. That is the motivation behind this song. People do not want to have to take sides but lately they are being forced to 

Review Fix: What Bridges have you burned in your life that you regret?

Wrench: Oh my God. I am 69 years old . Looking back I have burned a lot of bridges and relationships . Whether intentionally or not it just happened. But looking back everything I did and everything that happened to me made me who I am today. So in retrospect I don’t believe I would change anything .

Is it impossible to avoid Burning Bridges sometimes?Only if you are a hermit. People and circumstances make it impossible not to burn bridges 

Review Fix: How does music help in the process for you? 

Wrench: Right now? Creating music and lyrics has always been a great outlet for me. It gives me a platform to release and verbalize my emotions rather than bottle them up. I get to let them out. 

Review Fix: Who do you want this song to affect the most?

Wrench: I want people to think. That everything they say and do affects others. Their words, their actions and their moods. The feelings they project out into the world. It would be great if everyone were like John Lennons song “Imagine” But they are not. We are all human with feeling and reactions to others feelings and actions.

Review Fix: What makes this song timely? 

Wrench: Look what’s going on in the world today. George Floyd, The Protests. Trump sending in federal troops to incite riots with the excuse he is protecting federal buildings. People protesting wearing masks, Protesting police brutality, protesting for numerous reasons, For  racism, Christians because they are not supposed to gather . The whole world is in turmoil . All these factors forcing people to take sides , whether they want to or not . 

Review Fix: You’ve played with so many amazing artists over the years. If anyone could cover this song that you’ve played with, who do you think would do the best job?

Wrench: Yes I have worked with a lot of great artists. I have toured with many great artists. I think my reply to this question may surprise a lot of people. I would have to say “Tommy Tutone” (jenny jenny 8675309) . People think he was a one hit wonder . But Tommy is a great songwriter and has the ability to deliver a message with meaning and emotion.  I produced a remake of Tommy’s “Long Time Ago” . Its on my personal site under production http://stephenwrench.com/productions/ . It has great lyrics , listen to the feeling of his delivery. This epitomizes why it would be Tommy 

Review Fix: What’s next for you?

Wrench: Who knows? I wanted to tour the world and had plans and dates to do so until the pandemic hit. Now that’s on hold till? Once we can all travel safely again I will do that tour the world. Delivering my music , my messages, my way. 

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14263 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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