Category: Rock News

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NEW YEARS DAY singer Ash Costello has entered the studio to begin work on the the follow-up to 2019's "Unbreakable" album. Earlier today, Costello posted a photo of her and co-producer Scott Stevens (HALESTORM, SHINEDOWN) in the studio wearing masks, and she included the following message: "recording in 2020 DAY 1- I have so much to say and I've found my voice now more than ever. Back in @exiesscott studio (masks and shields of course) the man that helped create #Unbreakable along with @mitcheymitch .... I am so ready to create more magic. I'm not the person you think that I am. Leave some [love] if you're ready for new music" Costello recently confirmed to U.K.'s Rock Sound that NEW YEARS DAY has been using the coronavirus downtime to start work on material for its new LP. Speaking about how the creative process is taking place, Ash said: "I actually just talked to one of my producers yesterday. So it really depends on the producer's comfort level. I've seen musicians online in the studio with a producer with a mask on or whatnot. But his studio is in his house, and his wife, she does not want musicians coming in and out. I totally respect it — I respect that completely; who knows where we've been? So it really depends on the producer. In this particular case, he can't have people over, so we thought we're gonna buy me some recording gear and he's gonna take over my screen and do, like, mirroring and do all of the engineering and I'll just have to sing… I was, like, 'I don't have to sit in L.A. traffic. Why haven't we always been doing this? It's way better.'" According to Ash, she and her bandmates have discussed the possibility of composing new music over Zoom. "When we're together, there's a vibe, and that's really what is driving the song forward," she said. "You have to be there, feeling it out and getting excited or seeing the vibe, like, 'Oh, maybe that wasn't a good idea.' You feel stuff. So it's definitely going to be different. It's going to be new — that's for sure." Asked how she stays creative in a time like this, Ash said: "I can only speak personally for me, but I feel just as creative as I ever have. And what's nice is I just have a little bit more downtime to focus on it, so that's actually pretty helpful." This past May, NEW YEARS DAY released the official music video for "Skeletons". The song is taken from "Unbreakable", which was released in April 2019 to critical acclaim. The band enlisted powerhouse producers Mitchell Marlow (ALL THAT REMAINS, IN THIS MOMENT) and Stevens to create an album that combines heavy rock with pop sensibilities. This past January, NEW YEARS DAY released "Through The Years", a limited-edition box set featuring all seven of NEW YEARS DAY's albums on custom-colored vinyl, a Blu-ray of their beloved music videos and a four-page picture book of never-before-seen photos of Ash and NEW YEARS DAY from their humble beginnings. The photos were handpicked and the captions were hand written by Costello.

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Guitarist Erik Ferentinos, who has played with RATT singer Stephen Pearcy for nearly two decades, spoke to All Music/All Bands about Pearcy's forthcoming solo album. He said: "Stephen and I started working on his new solo record late last year. He is currently getting a deal together to release that. He also mentioned something about a best-of compilation." Regarding the songwriting process for the new LP, Ferentinos said: "[Stephen] and I are usually the two main songwriters. I'll usually write and arrange the song compositions and then he writes his vocals to it." On the topic of the musical direction of the next Pearcy album, Ferentinos said: "The new record will have the '80s rock sound that fans have come to expect from us with a few surprises thrown in for good measure. There are some heavy bangers on there that the RATT fans will love. I try to keep it edgy, but I want us to have a hit. I'm always trying to top what we've done so far, with catchier riffs and melodies to get more fans interested in our music." According to Ferentinos, Pearcy's new record will "hopefully" be released by the summer of 2021. Stephen's most recent release was the "All That I Want" solo single, He told Marci Wiser of the 95.5 KLOS radio station: "I didn't know where that song was gonna end up — a RATT song or solo — so I decided it's just gonna be put out there." Asked if the track will appear on a full-length album at some point in the future, Pearcy said: "No. It's just a song. That's all I do is write with Erik Ferentinos, a co-writer friend of mine, been in my band forever, solo band. And it's all good. We just write and if we feel it fits to be heard, we put it out." As for the lyrical inspiration for "All That I Want", Pearcy said: "It's a relationship song, and it just felt right for the times. Everybody's locked up, and what's really important to you? Your partner — somebody close to you, somebody to dig, love." This past March, Pearcy released another new solo song called "Making Crazy". Pearcy's fifth solo LP, "View To A Thrill", came out in November 2018 via Frontiers Music Srl. The follow-up to 2017's "Smash" was produced by Matt Thorne and Pearcy and was mixed and mastered by Thorne and Ferentinos. Pearcy and bassist Juan Croucier are the sole remaining original members in RATT's current lineup, which made its live debut in July 2018 in Mulvane, Kansas. Joining them in the band are drummer Pete Holmes (BLACK 'N BLUE, RATT'S JUAN CROUCIER) and guitarist Jordan Ziff (RAZER). Pearcy told Sleaze Roxx that Erik was briefly considered for a position in RATT before Ziff and now-former RATT guitarist Chris Sanders (BRITNY FOX, KNIGHT FURY) came along. "He's literally been in my band for years, in my solo band," he said. "He's a big part of my life, my solo records, the mixing, the engineering, just everything. I mean, we're like a team when I go in to do my solo records with Matt Thorne in the studio, and Erik and myself. We get in there and there is no stopping us, so I wanted to keep that a little separate, but he's always ready to go at any moment. He's a total professional."

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In a new interview with KNAC.COM, TWISTED SISTER singer Dee Snider was asked what his favorite social media platform is and why. He responded: "The one that I'm most active on is Twitter. It was my first one, I'm also on Facebook and Instagram, and I have a loyal following on those too. Twitter would be my favorite, I think, because it just has this ease of use. It's also got this immediacy of reaction. I liken it to back in the day when you were on the radio and you talked about something and you reacted, so the phones would light up. It's that immediacy of something that you said and it connected with people. I see a lot of that on Twitter — there's responses, there's likes and there's shares. I use Twitter as a rule, though I often wonder what I'm missing out on by not being as active on some of the other platforms." Snider went on to say that "there is an exchange of ideas" on Twitter. "I think that's something that has been lost and I'm trying to encourage more of that," he explained. "I think things have been getting a lot more political lately as we get closer and closer to the election. I think it's time to take a position. But having said that, I'm trying to keep the conversation going. There are times where people come back really fixed on their position, [and] I do a quick 'troll' on them. I'm big on 'trolling' them. [Laughs] I look and I see what they are about. I'm, like, 'Crap. They've been to Sturgis. I've been to Sturgis. They ride a bike. I ride a bike. They love the freedom of riding and the camaraderie and the unity.' We are so similar and we have so much in common, but where is the 'unity'? We should be able to talk about this, rather than to scream at each other." Snider will release "For The Love Of Metal Live!" on July 31 via Napalm Records. The DVD/Blu-ray and accompanying live album (available in various formats) features audio captured from several Snider festival performances worldwide — from the United States to Europe, Australia and beyond. In addition to tracks from Snider's solo catalog, like "I Am The Hurricane" and "For The Love Of Metal", TWISTED SISTER favorites such as "I Wanna Rock" and "We're Not Gonna Take It", and even a cover of AC/DC's "Highway To Hell", the audio portion of "For The Love Of Metal Live!" also features a brand new original studio track, "Prove Me Wrong". TWISTED SISTER called it quits in 2016 after completing a farewell 40th-anniversary tour. Photo credit: John Raptis

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In a new interview with Marci Wiser of the 95.5 KLOS radio station, THE PRETTY RECKLESS frontwoman Taylor Momsen spoke about the prospect of playing live shows in states where concerts are currently allowed amid the coronavirus pandemic. She said (hear audio below): "That makes me nervous. I'm a hypochondriac and a freak about this stuff anyway. I wear masks on airplanes regardless. I think it stems from being a singer and touring and just desperately trying to not get sick on tour. When you're sick on tour, it's awful. There's no time to recover, and you kind of never get better; you just kind of suffer through the rest of that leg. You're never 100 percent again until the tour is over. So my paranoia of the Purell [hand sanitizer] and the masks and everything, it's not too different now that I don't leave the house." THE PRETTY RECKLESS's fourth album, "Death By Rock And Roll", will be released in early 2021 via Fearless Records in the U.S. and Century Media Records in the rest of the world. The title track was made available in May. Momsen confirmed in an interview that RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE guitarist Tom Morello guests on "Death By Rock And Roll". Morello appears on a track called "And So It Went". Morello joins previously announced guests Kim Thayil and Matt Cameron from SOUNDGARDEN. The song with Cameron and Thayil, called "Only Love Can Save Me Now", was recorded at Seattle's legendary London Bridge Studios, where seminal LPs like PEARL JAM's "Ten" and SOUNDGARDEN's "Louder Than Love" were laid down. Momsen recently said that she was "devastated" by the death of SOUNDGARDEN singer Chris Cornell. THE PRETTY RECKLESS opened for SOUNDGARDEN in Detroit on May 17, 2017, a couple of hours before Cornell apparently committed suicide by hanging. Less than a year later, in April 2018, THE PRETTY RECKLESS's producer Kato Khandwala died from injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident.