Buckcherry
Buckcherry are back with their seventh album aptly titled Rock ‘n Roll. Already the album has spawned the new single Bring It On Back and judging by the response it is shaping up to be a big twelve months for the band. Across The Ocean got to speak to Keith Nelson (lead and rhythm guitar, backing vocals) about the album and getting back on the road for a tour with a wink to Australian fans that a tour here isn’t too far away.
Has it been a busy lead up with all the promo required for album number seven?
Seven is my lucky number so there are good things ahead.
Do you find with every new album there are just as many challenges as the last?
I wouldn’t say anything is down pat or anything, we have taken it upon ourselves to come up with different themes for records and challenge ourselves in different ways. We keep it fresh and exciting and the goal was to make a great fucking rock ‘n roll record and stick it in the arse of everyone who says rock ‘n roll is dead. Fuck those people!
Was it a hard slog in the studio?
Well, there was no problem in the studio. We made the record in about three weeks but we did spend a lot of time writing and rehearsing as a band so when it was our time to get in there to make the record we pretty much had it mapped out. There’s always room for little things that you didn’t think about or tweak some stuff like that but we are pretty well rehearsed and know what we’re going for. It is a matter of getting it!
Where did the ideas come from?
We have interesting lives man! It comes from everywhere, we tour all over the world and meet a lot of interesting people, we listen to a lot of music and have a lot of experiences that don’t have anything to do with music. When you bring all of that in and try make it all work, one of the challenges I have is that I don’t write all the lyrics for Josh, he writes all the lyrics, so my challenge is to always make the music invoke some sort of thing before he puts any lyric on top of that. Music is very powerful and when you throw in some very poignant lyrics then you’ve really got something going on.
Do you find there’s pressure to write another radio single such as Lit Up?
I remember making the Time Bomb record and there was a lot of pressure from everyone about writing the next Lit Up. Writing the Time Bomb record really fucking sucked because I listened to everyone talk about that song constantly. After that it was like I’m never fucking doing that again and I’m going to make the best the best songs I can make and to say I don’t care about hits would be a lie, of course I want hits as I want all my songs to be on the radio but at the end of the day it has to come from inside. So, I don’t worry about what radio programmers think or music reviewers think because all I want to do is make great rock ‘n roll records and the band feels the same way. It is pretty simple, if the five of us like it then people outside of the band will like it.
Does the label give you enough space to go away and be creative?
We’ve got our own record label so the only people we have to answer to is ourselves and part of starting our record label has been sharing all the responsibility of whether or not the records are good and how the records get treated. We’ve taken all that on ourselves…
Releasing the album through Pledge Music is a great way to connect with fans on a different level and have their support and commitment in advance?
Pledge Music has been a great way for us to interact with fans and a great opportunity for us to do some shit off the beaten path that most bands don’t get to do when they are tied up with a major label record deal with no autonomy. We made an EP of cover songs because we wanted to and it was essentially starting off recording some covers having some fun with it. Then it was like let’s make these available to people who like our music and see what happens. It was a pretty organic process and we didn’t have this mastermind plan, it kind of just happened and that’s what we did.
Do you think these sorts of initiatives reduce the chances of the album being leaked?
The industry is changing and people are moving away from physical records. There are still a lot of people that still like them, and I still like to get a CD and pop it in my CD player but that’s just me. The majority of the world is moving to streaming and it is a bigger problem for the music industry than just illegal downloading because people still want entire records at least in the rock ‘n roll genre. Some pop artists it may affect them a little bit more but I’m not going to sit and whine about people not fucking paying for music. It is the responsibility of record labels and publishers to protect their artists. It’s not the artist’s job to make sure their material is protected. The responsibility falls completely on the business people that don’t do anything creatively.
Are you looking forward to getting back on the road to tour this new album?
Yeah man, we love to tour, we’re a live band! I’m happy to be on the phone with you but I don’t really love doing interviews but I’d rather be on stage playing my guitar and playing these songs.
Do you do anything like play the new album start to end?
We’re seven records deep now so we change the set list up every night. There are always songs that we’re rotating in and out and playing shit we haven’t played in a long time. We still want to play the songs that people are familiar with and some key songs people will always want to hear but we take the liberty of mixing it up every night. So you’re going to hear a bunch of stuff off the new record and all the old stuff like about us.
Are there any plans to tour Australia under your own steam?
Australian audiences are so awesome and every time we come back it gets bigger and stronger. We can feel the momentum there but we do not have any definitive plans as of yet but yes we will be back in Australia.
Whether it is rummaging through vinyl at record stores such as Clarity and Title finding hidden gems to scouring the internet to find that album by the next big thing or chasing bands to get that elusive autograph and photo his passion is music all the way.
- Aversions Crown - January 27, 2017
- Sick Of It All - January 19, 2017
- Refused - January 11, 2017
