Inopportune timing went hand in hand with excellence when it came to Giant, the melodic rock band personally signed to A&M Records by jazz great and label executive Herb Alpert that could’ve easily picked up where Bad Company or Foreigner left off had its 1989 debut, “Last Of The Runaways,” come out a little sooner.

However, the title proved to foreshadow the entire genre’s final moments in the mainstream prior to being instantly erased by grunge, but not before hits such as “I’m A Believer” and “I’ll See You In My Dreams” propelled the hopefuls (who already honed their chops as ace session men) towards enormous shows alongside Heart, Bryan Adams, Whitesnake and even Elton John.

Though Giant wound down just as quickly as the climb, the 2000s found Frontiers Music reviving various versions of the group, all while the original recordings and players became that much more revered as those in the know gradually uncovered their previously overlooked treasures.

After another dozen years apart, the latest line-up comprised of co-founding drummer David Huff and bassist Mike Brignardello, plus guitarist John Roth (Winger, Starship) and singer Kent Hilli (Perfect Plan), are finally back with the full-length “Shifting Time,” which is poised to be another prominent head banger worthy of global reappraisal.

To mark the occasion, the locally-connected Huff, who’s also a super producer/session regular for practically every A-lister south of the dial (Taylor Swift, Tim McGraw & Faith Hill, Kenny Chesney, The Doobie Brothers, Reba, Keith Urban, Lady A, Jewel), called Chicago Concert Reviews to run down Giant’s entire arc, gaining the blessing from brother and fellow co-founder turned studio whiz Dann to carry on in his absence, all the way back to both being in the pioneering contemporary Christian act White Heart and beyond.

It’s been a dozen years since Giant’s last album. What led to getting going again?

David Huff: Isn’t it crazy man? It’s not a record contractual thing that we do one every 10 to 12 years [laughs]. I have to answer this by going back to the original band Giant. In ‘91, ’92, the melodic rock and roll scene drastically changed with Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Spin Doctors and all those kinds of bands, so there just wasn’t much of a demand for our band. There was a little calling in Europe, but about 12 years ago we made a record testing the waters if people were still out there. Frontiers Records was very supportive, [but] I’m not sure whatever it was, it didn’t register as much.

I got a call from them a couple years ago saying, “hey man, would you ever be interested [in getting Giant back together]?” “Yeah, with the right line-up!” Anyways, I got pitched Kent as a singer and I was like “man, I’ve seen him before.” I had gotten a video from him a year or two before with a cover of a Giant song. “This guy is an incredible singer. If this guy wants to do the band with us, I would love that.” He did and that prompted, “hey, I think it’s time to do a Giant record.” We had the support of Frontiers and the response has been overwhelmingly amazing for us.

How would you describe the style and subject matter of “Shifting Time”?

Huff: It’s about positivity, love, never giving up and just being happy. There’s always going to be two different reactions to new, and not just Giant, but with anything. You’re gonna have hardcore fans that see it how it originated, and then you’re gonna see ones that evolve and go, “oh, this is cool.” So the style is, hopefully, we stayed on brand with Giant, but it evolved somewhat. The rock and roll scene is a lot bigger, so to speak, in Europe, so it’s a little bit more of a European flavor infused in there. It’s rock, it’s got soul, it’s got a little bit more Euro vibe to it than our original two records, but it’s still in that Giant vibe.

Let’s talk a little bit about the retooled line-up and the dynamic you have right now.

Huff: Mike Brignardello is the bass player. He’s an original member and great friend. Dann and I had worked with him in Nashville even before we started Giant. Mike is a lifer friend and a work friend too. Then John Roth is playing guitar. It’s really hard to replace a Dann Huff, as a musician, as a guitar player, as a producer, as a singer, just as a personality, but John is an incredible guitar player. He’s world class and he’s really cool about everything, the respect with Dann and the fact that he can come in, and be himself, and still have confidence to be the guitar player in Giant. He’s a great player, a great guy, a great singer and all that. And then I mentioned Kent Hilli. Kent is a little bit newer to the rock scene, but his singing is what attracted me to him. He’s got pipes, but he’s got a soulfulness to his singing, which is a little bit more where Dann was and how Giant was formed. Our influences were [original Foreigner singer] Lou Gramm and [Bad Company front man] Paul Rodgers. They have some soul to them and Kent really fits that well, so that’s our line-up. You can’t rule out Alessandro Del Vecchio from Italy. He filled in keyboards, background vocals and songwriting. He’s basically a fifth member of Giant, whether he wants to be or not.

What does your brother and former founding member Dann think of this chapter?

Huff: He loves it. He couldn’t commit to Giant at the time with his music schedule. I know some people don’t look at Giant as the same without him involved. I absolutely respect that and I get it. Dann and I are best friends. Obviously, we’re brothers. We have worked together every single week since high school. He’s two years older than me, so when I was in ninth grade, we started playing on records. We have done that ever since then and we still do every week now. He loves Giant. He’s proud of what he accomplished in it and he shows everybody that he supports it by being involved in some things. It’s kind of a brother thing where I chided him, “I don’t know if you can still play this really cool rocking music.” And of course, he shreds on it. He supports it. He says it’s a great time, a great brand and a great band. He’s very into it.

Are there any touring plans in the works?

Huff: We’re in negotiations right now about filming a live concert with this new line-up. I’ve been getting some requests for all these different shows over in Europe and I know you guys have a huge festival in Chicago, the Melodic Rock Fest.

Do you recall any prior times you performed around the area?

Huff: Just for a little background, my mom’s whole side of the family is from the Wheaton and Naperville area. We used to go to Chicago every year for holidays. I love Chicago! Man, what a great city! I remember some of our first shows that we did as Giant on A&M. We did a promotional tour right when our record was coming out and Chicago was a big city where we played for a lot of the radio people. I remember it specifically cause my cousins were there and it was a great time. It’s been a minute since I’ve been to Chicago, but I know we get asked to play there. I had a couple guys that hit me up a few years and tried to get us up there, but it’s hard to do a one-off show for us cause we’re all studio producers and musicians. We really want to do some touring this year, so hopefully everybody can get a grip on this damn pandemic.

What’s your take on Giant’s rise to recognition around “Last Of The Runaways”?

Huff: It was awesome. We never set out to be rock stars or whatever. I’m not saying we were rock stars, but that wasn’t our goal. Dann and I have always made music since high school. That’s been our dream and that’s been our good fortune to make a living. During the time when we started Giant, like in ‘86 or ‘87, we were in L.A. playing on a bunch of big records, and on our downtime, this is how much we love music, we wrote songs and worked on our own band. Then next thing you know, we get a manager, Bud Prager, who was managing Foreigner, and all these different big bands and he loved our band. We got a personal phone call from Herb Alpert, who was one of the owners of A&M Records. I’ll never forget it. Dann and I were together and Herb called us from his cellphone. Back then, it was pretty odd to have a cell phone and pretty exclusive. He said, “I want to sign you guys” and we were just floored. Then we started the process of really becoming a band, and once we did the record, we got nothing but love.

The radio station in L.A., KLOS, championed us for some reason. We became really close with those guys at the station and we got a break when “Believer” hit the charts…Our first concert was with Heart down in Miami at an arena. That was our first official show and then we did a bunch of big shows. We played with Bryan Adams, Whitesnake, Bad English and Extreme. We did a couple shows in Europe with Elton John. It was educational and it was extremely fun, but instead of partying after we played, we were watching these bands going, “oh my gosh, this is what these bands do! These guys are amazing!”

How about being the victim of changing musical trends around “Time To Burn”?

Huff: We had something like two to three months in Europe all ready to go and then they canceled. When Pearl Jam and Nirvana came out, the landscape of melodic rock and roll absolutely changed historically. First of all, we’re the kind of guys who were incredibly grateful. As discouraging as it was, we didn’t die. We just went and kept making music. We didn’t make music for Giant, unfortunately. We had to go back to what we know and make [session] music.

In what ways has perception of the group changed between the beginning and now?

Huff: At that time, rock was one of the biggest pop forms in music. Now if you look at it, there’s not a lot of it. I don’t even know if there’s any rock on pop radio at all in the U.S., so it just comes with the supply and demand chain I guess, just like anything else. When one industry dies, another one rises up and morphs…Luckily, Frontiers has been a champion for rock and roll music when no one else wanted it. They adopted the rock and roll bands and really helped them have a voice and an outlet…The ‘80s are coming back again. There’s a whole new generation, like I’ll give you a good example.

I have good buddies in the band The Doobie Brothers. They were one of the biggest bands throughout the ‘70s and early ‘80s and then they were playing casinos, which is kind of like putting the horse out to pasture to retire in. I went to them with an idea. “You guys should do a record of your hits with all these big country stars in Nashville.” I had the opportunity to work with all these big stars on different records. They were apprehensive about it, but I assured them, “no, it’s not gonna be hokey. It’s gonna be cool. I don’t know if it’s gonna sell, but there’s a whole generation that needs to hear your songs.” I produced it and I basically [put the collaborations together for the album, “Southbound,” in 2014]. Long story made short, they don’t tour casinos anymore. They’re out headlining with Journey and these different bands in arenas again. My point is they have all their old fans and now they have a whole new generation of fans. I think rock and roll is poised for that too cause the ‘80s music is coming back and it’s an art form that’s really awesome. There’s a whole art form that can be consumed by a bunch of new fans.

Where does session work fit into the equation and who are a few of your favorites?

Huff: I’m not gonna answer the last question because everyone’s my favorite [laughs] and I’m running for mayor next month [laughs]. I actually form a close bond with everybody I work with because it’s a very close, personal thing to make art, so you develop friendships. Some last forever, some don’t. It’s in my DNA. Our father, [Ronn Huff], was a string arranger and co-owned a studio here in Nashville. My dad was a quiet genius and was on so many different records. We just watched and learned. We have an absolute passion and we devour making music. I’ve been fortunate, even with the pandemic, with technology I’ve been able to record with artists in Dubai, Japan and all over [America]. I produced all the songs for two or three years for “American Idol” that went for iTunes. I do a lot of pop music and a lot of country. To make art and to be a part of that world is what’s important to the Huff family.

Long before that, what was it like transitioning from CCM pioneers White Heart to Giant?

Huff: We kind of fell into that band [with other frequent session collaborators] because of being raised in Nashville [working with] people like Amy Grant, who’s a Christian artist and a big pop artist. Amy is an absolutely incredible, close, dear friend, as is Vince [Gill], her husband. We grew up around so much, it’s like you forget, “oh my gosh, Dann and I were in Amy’s original band of her first show that she ever played!” We were just little kids and she was a kid too. We played on different tours and we played on different records of all these Christian artists and some country artists. We weren’t really big country fans at that point. We didn’t understand the value of being raised in Nashville, but it was the Christian and country music center of at least the United States at that time. We really learned about how to make records and songs from Nashville, so transitioning was not a big thing for us because we made records and we just kind of fell into White Heart. There was an opportunity and it was like, “hey man, you should do a band.” We were playing for all these different artists and we just started writing, just like we did with Giant.

What’s your greatest takeaway throughout it all?

Huff: We learned from our dad how to appreciate every artist, every song and everything. He was an old school arranger, so he wrote every single note down. He didn’t have a computer back then, so he would painstakingly write every single part for a 50 to 65-piece orchestra. Every single note of every instrument! He finished an arrangement, and countless times he’d rip it up and start all over. It’s not like you could push “delete” on a computer like nowadays. He started over because of his pride. He’s a craftsman and you always put your best foot forward. It can’t just be acceptable, so Dann and I don’t phone in our parts. We literally have never done that and we still, to this day, treat every artist and every record we work on the same. Even back in the day, Dann played on Michael Jackson, then he played on some little unknown artist. You can’t get any more excited for the big artists than somebody who’s not even there yet cause you don’t know who that’s gonna be, so you do your best on everything. We’re grateful that we get to make music. Music is such a huge part of the world and such a needed part of the world.

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For additional information on Giant, visit Facebook.com/Giant.The.Band.