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In a new interview with Pablo of the Minneapolis, Minnesota radio station 93X, FOO FIGHTERS mainman Dave Grohl was asked how he knows when a song he is working on is “done” and ready for release. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “When you get sick of it. Well, in a way. I don’t like spending too much time on anything in the studio. It’s, like, usually the first few takes, that’s got the thing that you want — even if it’s imperfect. It’s, like, you get in there and the energy of it, and it’s fresh and it’s new and you hit ‘record’ and you go blast through something. I like working on things until it’s powerful and it’s worth other people hearing. But, dude, I’ll get to the point sometimes with songs where I’m, like, ‘All right. I’m out of love. That’s it. I’m out of love with this song. We’re done. That’s it.'”

Grohl’s memoir “The Storyteller: Tales Of Life And Music”, was released on October 5 via Dey Street Books and Simon & Schuster. In the book, Grohl shares what it was like growing up as a kid with big dreams in Springfield, Virginia, and how he lived out those dreams making music on the world stage. The book features anecdotes about David Bowie, Joan Jett, Iggy Pop and Paul McCartney, as well as stories about the time he played drums for Tom Petty, went swing dancing with AC/DC, and performed at the White House.

Regarding how he chose what to include in “The Storyteller”, Grohl said in a recent trailer for the book: “I could write an entire book about the band SCREAM. I could write an entire book about my time in NIRVANA. The idea was to choose the stories that best described what it’s like to be behind the curtain and on the inside of the music, from the drum stool looking out. To play music, have this beautiful family, travel the world, meet people from all walks of life, I never take any of this for granted, believe me.”

In a recent interview with Austin American-Statesman, Grohl said that “The Storyteller” might just be the first of many volumes. “It was so much fun, and I can’t wait to do more,” he said. “When I hit send on that last story in the book, I was sad. I thought, oh no, it’s over? I guess that is the tip of the iceberg. I want to keep going.”

With a strong sense of vintage country, Aaron Lewis has spent the last ten years committed to making the kind of country he was raised on. Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings, David Allen Coe and early Hank Williams Jr. inform the Springfield, Vermont star’s take on the genre that started with the No. 1 Billboard Country Albums debut with 2011’s “Town Line”.

That same passion for the unseen and the unrecognized drives the guitar-playing songwriter. Having spent the last year focused on writing, often with friends he’s made over the decade he’s spent making country music, he’s putting the finishing touches on “Frayed At Both Ends”.

“There’s so much great music in Nashville, which I think everybody knows. But until you really live here, get to know people, you don’t realize how deep it runs,” Lewis says of the dozen songs on his upcoming record. “It’s inspiring to be around people who are drawn to that same hard kind of country, the stuff that digs down and looks at life with some of the paint knocked off it.”

“Frayed At Both Ends” also strips back Lewis’s sound, taking it to the bare minimum. With guitarists Tom Bukovac, Biff Watson and Seth Taylor, dobroist Ben Kitterman, acoustic slide and baritone from Sturgill Simpson veteran Laur Joamets, keyboards from Jim Moose Brown, acoustic guitar and mandolin from Dan Tyminski, some of Nashville’s best players make less do more.

“Goodbye Town”, an acoustic guitar shuffle that looks at a love that’s gone, and the echoes that linger after it’s over, is the first advance track. With Mickey Raphael’s harmonica and a dobro rising from the mix, Lewis’s weathered delivery more than carries the enduring ache.

“Big heartache is part of it,” says the man cited for “his mournful baritone” by the Los Angeles Times. “Country music takes on the tough stuff, the doubts and the working harder to just stay where you are. Writing with guys like Dan Tyminski, who’s sung on some of my earlier records, Jeffrey Steele, Ira Dean, David Lee Murphy and Chris Wallin all have the same sense of what this is, so I can’t wait for people to get to hear this record.”

Slated for January 28 release, fans can pre-order the album now and receive “Goodbye Town”, the project’s first teaser track. They will also receive “Am I The Only One”, Lewis’s anthem of frustration that spent the 4th of July at No. 1 on iTunes all-genre chart, as well as being only the ninth song since 1958 to debut at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart.

“This is an album of saying things that need to be said about how people actually live,” Lewis explains. “Life isn’t easy. Most people drink to forget, or drive for hours trying to get away from what they can’t let go of or leave behind. Work takes it out of you. Love falls short or destroys you. Disappointments stack up. But still you have to keep going — and how you do that says everything about the man that you are.”

The 12 songs are joined by a bonus: the previously released CreatiVets-penned “They Call Me Doc”. The bare witness of a triage soldier who holds people together at their darkest moments honors the fighting men and women who’ve been injured and those who care for them. With just an acoustic guitar, Lewis is joined by Tyminiski and Vince Gill for the homage.

“I’ve never wanted to be the face of a song, or a time,” Lewis offers. “I’m a lucky man. I survived my first record deal, and I can make music on my terms. One of those terms is singing for other people, the things they need to say or the heroism they’ve lived and no one ever really noticed. If I can put the light in those places, then the music is doing its best work.”

Mixed by Chris Lord-Alge, the five-time Grammy-winning engineer burnished the warmth of the playing and found the depth in the room. For a largely unplugged project, its presence is undeniable.

“I played an acoustic show at the Ryman Auditorium,” STAIND’s founder/frontman remembers, “and Scott Borchetta, the head of my label, had never seen me like that. When we were done, he came backstage and said, ‘You need to do a record like that.’ I’d never really thought about it, but once he planted the seed…”

“I didn’t have a master plan, just these songs that I’d been writing with friends. I’d never really co-written in all my years of being an artist. Sometimes writing with somebody else dials you even more into yourself, or more the reality that’s all of us. And with the world being such a mess, I figured ‘frayed at both ends’ sounds about right. No matter who you are or what you believe, I think we all feel like the knot’s coming undone.”

“Frayed At Both Ends” track listing:

01. Again (Aaron Lewis, Ira Dean, David Lee Murphy)
02. Goodbye Town (Aaron Lewis, Randy Montana)
03. Everybody Talks To God (Craig Monday, Chris Wallin)
04. Am I The Only One (Aaron Lewis, Ira Dean, Jeffrey Steele)
05. Kill Me Like You Love Me (Aaron Lewis, Ira Dean, Dan Tyminiski, Chris Wallin)
06. Pull Me Under (Aaron Lewis)
07. Life Behind Bars (Aaron Lewis, Josh Hogue, Matt McGinn)
08. Waiting There For Me (Aaron Lewis, Ira Dean, Dan Tyminiski, Chris Wallin)
09. They Call Me Doc (featuring CreatiVets, Vince Gill, Dan Tyminiski) (Shaun Bott, Richard Casper, Brian Carper, Jourdan Walker, Johnny McGuire)
10. Get What You Get (Aaron Lewis, Ira Dean, Dan Tyminiski)
11. Sticks And Stones (Aaron Lewis, Paul Barber, Matt McGinn)
12. One In The Same (Aaron Lewis, Trent Tomlinson)
13. Someone (Aaron Lewis, Paul Barber, Matt McGinn)

MÖTLEY CRÜE bassist Nikki Sixx, who contributed lead vocals to the band’s song “Rocketship” and provided additional singing to “Find Myself”, was asked in a new interview with the “My Mom’s Basement” podcast if he has ever considered launching a project where he was also the frontman. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Before the pandemic, I got into this lesson thing. So I started guitar lessons online. I just pluck away on the guitar, and I can write an okay song on the guitar, but I don’t know a lot about the instrument other than I like to write from root notes — a so, simple chords and all the [sus guitar chords] and all the interchangeable notes that work within that chord, I don’t have a ton of knowledge; I can kind of figure it out. So I started taking guitar lessons online and then eventually in person. I started taking bass lessons online and eventually in person. Then I was pushing myself to play with my fingers. So even the songs on [CRÜE’s] ‘The Dirt’ soundtrack — all those songs I played with my fingers. [It was my] first time, and there were some adjustments with the audio, because I’m an aggressive pick player… And then I said, ‘While I’m at it, why don’t I just take vocal lessons, so I’ll be a better background singer? And when I’m writing songs, it’ll be easier to explain to the actual singer or whoever I’m co-writing with.’ And I was surprised at the range that I had, but it was a little bit in the lower register. But I like to sing more of a falsetto-y thing, like with ‘Rocketship’, which kind of leans on Marc Bolan.

“I just got to this place where I was just, like, ‘I don’t have enough years [under my belt as a singer],” he explained. “I don’t have a lot of control over my voice. So I’m, like, you know, I seem to have been able to sell over a hundred million records with this crackly old thing I’ve got now, so I know of let that go for some reason. I might have just gotten busy. That would have all gone bye-bye with the pandemic anyway.

“I don’t think of myself as a singer, but I’ll do background vocals. And what I learned about my voice is if I’m in the right key, I actually have some strength. So certain songs, like ‘Too Fast For Love’, the background vocals is perfect for me — it’s kind of a shout; there’s a melody in there a little bit, but it’s pretty punk rock. There’s no problems in there at all. Other songs, like ‘Girls Girls Girls’, it’s harder for me to hit some of those notes. So, yeah, there are things you learn about, and there are things you decide, like, ‘Is that an important thing for me right now?’

“I will never be a solo artist,” Nikki added. “I don’t wanna be a solo artist. I’m not interested [in being] a solo artist. I’m a bandmember and project person, and the idea of putting out a solo record where I’m singing.” He then seemingly corrected himself. “I guess maybe — never say never — maybe someday maybe I’ll wanna do something like that,” he said.

“Rocketship” and “Find Myself” both appeared on CRÜE’s 1997 album “Generation Swine”, which marked the return of lead singer Vince Neil.

Sixx’s new book, “The First 21: How I Became Nikki Sixx”, looks back at his formative years beginning with his birth in 1958 as Franklin Carlton Feranna to the date in 1980 — before the band was formed — when he legally rechristened himself Nikki Sixx. Written with Alex Abramovich, the new memoir was released October 19 and quickly shot to No. 1 on Amazon’s rock music books chart. It is also in the Top 40 of Amazon’s overall biographies and memoirs chart.

Following his 2015 departure from Helsinki’s renowned BATTLE BEAST, guitarist extraordinaire Anton Kabanen launched BEAST IN BLACK, a project that is equally if not more over the top in its forwarding of unabashed heavy metal thunder. The unit’s first two albums, 2017’s “Berserker” and 2019’s “From Hell With Love”, have been revered globally by power metal fiends, to say the least. BEAST IN BLACK is essentially a household name in Finland where the aforementioned releases both reached platinum status. In the face of high expectations, BEAST IN BLACK delivers on their third outing, “Dark Connection”.

BEAST IN BLACK didn’t have a sophomore slump following its impressive debut, and “Dark Connection” truly does meet the high-water mark left by the initial releases. True to the band’s fundamentals, “Dark Connection” is bursting with absolutely blistering riffs and guitar work, which are combined with deeply infectious vocal work and choruses. “Blade Runner” opens things up with a brief but memorable keyboard driven intro that adequately teases, creating an element of tension before the band unleashes crisp and bold pop-laden heavy metal. The song is replete with Yannis Papadopoulos’s impressive vocals, which comfortably and tastefully reach toward the heavens when it’s time to unleash that glorious falsetto. But follow-up track “Bella Donna” does an even better job of representing BEAST IN BLACK’s essence, a beautiful marriage of impassioned eighties-inspired heavy metal and crystalline pop music.

Along with bleeping sounds signifying some form of aircraft or spacecraft, “Highway To Mars” begins with the apparent utterances of a stewardess making announcements regarding a city on Mars. Such augmentations lend the musical experience a cinematic quality. Elsewhere, “Hardcore”, a song that’s ironically lightweight, moves forth with a prominent swing. “Moonlight Rendezvous” stands out due to the decidedly calmer nature and flow. And while the MANOWAR cover, “Battle Hymn”, makes sense considering the ensemble’s style, BEAST IN BLACK throws a complete wild card on the table with their MICHAEL JACKSON cover, “They Don’t Care About Us”. The song choice is logical considering BEAST IN BLACK’s pop music inclination, and the bold move pays off proving to be one of the album’s strongest cuts, adding considerable depth and dynamics.

With “Dark Connection”, BEAST IN BLACK wisely chose to employ the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” approach. Now that they are three albums deep, the band seems comfortable in its stride. What’s more, the moody and slower-tempo songs, as well as the MICHAEL JACKSON cover, collectively drag the BEAST forward as a band, ever so marginally yet noticeable enough. The album flows mellifluously in terms of sequencing and because of the thematic science fiction-inspired similarities. There’s a sense that BEAST IN BLACK has the potential to reach into the American pocket of mainstream music. Whether or not that happens with “Dark Connection” doesn’t matter, though. At the end of the day, in terms of art and creativity, BEAST IN BLACK has hit the ball out of the park with album number three.

Pupil Slicer guitarist and vocalist Katie Davies talks influences, writing process and the band’s upcoming tour.
The post Interview: Pupil Slicer’s Katie Davies Discusses Debut Album, “Mirrors” appeared first on Decibel Magazine.