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JOHN CORABI – ‘New Day’ Interview

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JOHN CORABI has a brand new solo album coming out, titled ‘New Day‘, on Frontiers. New Day is produced by Marti Frederiksen (credits include Brother Kane, Aerosmith, Foreigner, Def Leppard, Dead Daisies….). This album is Corabi’s first full album of new rock material, and is the best new album I’ve heard so far this year, with the title track, and tunes like “Your Own Worst Enemy”, “When I Was Young”, and a cool version of Sly & The Family Stone’s “Everyday People”. In our converxation John talks in detail about the new album, the songs, the artwork, as well an update on The Dead Daisies, and a look back at Union. It was a pleasure talking to the guy; one of the coolest rockers out there. Check out ‘New Day‘, it is highly recommended listening for any rock fan. *Please also check out the links below.

I want to talk about your new album. I love it. I didn’t dawn on me that this is actually your first solo album of new material because you’ve been around for so long that there’s been other releases under your name.

Well, it’s kind of a misconception a little bit because I did do an acoustic record a few years back. And probably 60, 65% of that record was new material that I’d never released before, but I just did like an acoustic thing. There wasn’t even drums on it, it was more just percussion.

(I hold up the Live in Nashville CD).

That one was in 2014. I was doing the Motley record live in it’s entirety. And I loved being in Motley and it was a great record, but I sang this stuff like 30 years ago! So I don’t want to do this anymore, and so I recorded one show in Nashville for prosperity, put it out on a record. So, I mean, technically this is my third solo record, but this is my first one with all new material, full band, drums, keyboards, the whole bit. So, it is what it is. It’s all good.

I loved it. I think I got about eight songs through and I went on Amazon and ordered it. It’s a very upbeat album, uplifting. And I don’t think, for those people that have heard your name and the association with Motley Crue or whoever else would be misjudged or misguided to think that it’s going to be a metal album, right? It’s not, obviously it’s a very diverse, wide open album.

Yeah. in all honesty when I signed the record deal with Frontiers, I told them right up front, I said, if you’re looking for Motley Crue Part Two, it’s not going to happen. I’m not interested. And I told them what I wanted. And one of the things that I don’t want to say irritates me, but irritates me to a degree about the music business now, is that once, once you’re like, once you’re, and I say, ‘an established artist’, but once you’ve done a few things, you’re kind of locked into that box, it’s like people don’t really want you to step outside of that box.

And all the bands that I grew up listening to, you, the great bands like the Beatles, the Stones, Zeppelin, Queen was huge. Those bands weren’t afraid to experiment from track to track. I mean, if you look at the Stones considered the greatest rock and roll band in the history of music, they weren’t afraid to do songs like “Dead Flowers”, or “Waiting On A Friend” or “Wild Horses”, which technically now could be considered country songs. Even Led Zeppelin did “Hot Dog” on their last record, which is basically nothing more than an old country rockabilly song.

So what I wanted to get back to was just that time or that era where bands had the freedom to just be as creative as they wanted to be. There was no categories, no boxes, and just do what you want, man; if it’s a cool tune – have at it! If you’ve heard the record, you know, there’s a song on my record called “Good To Be Back Here Again”. And I’ve had a few people, not many, but if you go, “Oh obviously Nashville is rubbing off on you. ..You’re kind of doing a little bit of country stuff”. And I’m like, Nashville is nothing to do with it. I literally just sat down, I was playing the guitar. I came up with the first line of the song and I thought it was cool, so I just stopped. I wrote the rest of the song and then I brought it into Marty the next day and he thought it was awesome. But again, if you listen to “Dead Flowers” or “Waiting On A Friend” by the Rolling Stones, kind of the same thing. So again, I just wanted to do something that was category free, and just creative without being full of myself.

The album is very, like when you say creative, it’s very creative in that there’s so much going on. The opening track was the first track I heard. That’s a great song, very uplifting, very, it rocks, but it’s obviously it’s not a metal song. It’s not really just a simple rock song. it’s a good feel good song. So where did that sort of stuff come from lyrically?

Marti and I, when we were mapping everything out; we usually map the song out and then have like a loose or rough idea of what the song is going to be called. And we came up with the title “New Day”. And honestly, one of the things about being human is you can have the shittiest day ever, but the blessing that we all have is that we can go to sleep at night and reset and then get up the next day with a new attitude, new, fresh – “It’s a new day”. Just keep moving forward. And personally, I’m not a big fan of people that sit and whine and complain about how life’s unfair. I’m just like – well, if you want to change it, do something about it!

So it was just basically putting a lot of those cliched things down in lyrics and yeah, it’s positive, but it’s just like, man you’re kind of writing your own story. So if you work hard and you just keep not taking no for an answer and just keep plugging away, something positive is going to happen for you. Do you know what I mean?

Yeah. And there’s, there’s a few songs on here that you you’ve had around for a little while, obviously,

Yeah, “Cosi’ Bella” and “Your Own Worst Enemy”.

I love that song. That’s another one that kind of jumped out at me. It’s got a bit of a bit of funk to it,

It’s probably the heaviest song on the record, but it was, um, again, it’s just about, you know, I have some friends and stuff that have had issues in the past, whether it was drinking or drugs or whatever. And it’s just like, (again) you’re sitting here complaining about things, but you’re not doing anything about it. You’re your own worst enemy. So, I just put pen to paper and it just kind of happened. …But those two songs, I initially wanted to do this record. and then during COVID and all that stuff, I started to talk to Marti, and Marti was like “people are doing things different now, they’re putting a song out, let it sit while you’re working on the record. And then you put another single out and you do this like three, four times, and then you release the record”. And at the time I wasn’t even going to do a record label, I was just going to self-print the records and sell them at my shows. But I wound up getting the call to come back to the Dead Daisies, which I did and got in that span of,…well, I came back in ’23. So in three years, we’ve done three records there. And then I got offered (last year) to do this thing with Frontiers. I was like, “Okay, cool!” I need to make sure I tell my manager, I need to make sure that everything’s coordinated perfectly with the Daisies so that I don’t interfere with them – they don’t interfere with me. And then as it turned out, the Daisies said, “Hey, we’re going to take a year off.” Well, so I was “All right, this is perfect!”

At that point, we had those three songs and Marti and I just got in and started writing. There’s still a bunch of other songs that Marti and I worked on that we haven’t even looked at yet; that we started working on and we never got around the finishing. So, I’m already starting to think about record number two.

There’s a lot of different things like “Faith, Hope and Love”. Maybe it’s the backing vocals but it’s got a bit of a gospel feel at times. You got a bit of Southern rock, and blues and everything. What can tell me a bit about what you listened to or what kind of influences, when you go to do stuff.

Honestly, again, I, I hate the category thing. To me, there’s two categories of music – There’s good music and bad music. It’s really weird because I love everything. I mean, it’s not unusual for me to get on my motorcycle and listen to Zeppelin or Sabbath, or some of the heavier stuff. And then you might see me the next day and I might be listening to the greatest hits of Glenn Campbell or Bob Seger. So, when I sit down and I write, I just kind of allow things to just happen organically. I’ll show it to Marti. And then even when I’m showing it to Marti, I kind of have an idea of what I want it to sound like, but as we’re in the studio, it’s gone through this metamorphosis and it just winds up becoming what it is. I just personally, there’s so much good music out there.

And when I was doing this record, I told Marti “No categories”. And I just really want to be musical. I want to incorporate as much different influences as I can on this record.

And, without blowing smoke up my own arse, I think we kind of accomplished that.

I think it’s a very widely appealing album. I think anybody that knows you will like it. And I think a lot of people don’t know you’re going to love it, just because there’s so much in there.

From your mouth to God’s ears, buddy.

Do you write usually with a title first or… (?)

No, not really. It usually comes with like a riff or a chord progression and I’ll start working on it. Then I’ll bring it to Marti, and then we kind of map it out. And between Marti or myself, one of us will just be scatting a melody and one of us will come up with what eventually becomes the title. I came up with the title for “1969”. Marti was just scatting something over a chord progression I had. And then he was like “when I was young”, so I’m like, ‘Oh, that’s kind of cool’; write it down. Then we map the kind of idea out and then I’ll come home with that title. I wrote down…”when I was young”, and then I start working on the lyrics, I immersed myself in the title. How could I, how could I tie this in and make it work? So usually it’s the music first getting mapped out, and then again, between Marti and I, one of us will just be scatting just a melody idea. And then somehow the title winds up coming out. Even back with the Dead Daisies, like I was struggling for lyrics on an idea we had, and it was just something David Lowy said. We passed each other in the hallways. I was in one room, he was in another, and I just said to him, “Hey dude, how the guitar tracks going?”, and he goes, “long way to go. No time to get there”. And I immediately went back into the room and I started working on lyrics to a song, which eventually became “Long Way To Go”. So it’s usually the music first.

I find it interesting because there’s some very memorable titles here. Like you said, “1969” was the first one I thought of, and “When I Was Young”, and “New Day”, they’re all very memorable titles as opposed to 12 songs with love in the title. Who else played on this album with you?

On the record, it was mainly me on guitar, Marti on bass and his son, Evan on drums. And then whoever was better at a keyboard part or…we just kind of layered things on top. I was very fortunate to have Charlie Starr from Blackberry Smoke, he played all the lead guitars on the song, “Faith, Hope, and Love”. And then Charlie actually sent me a little phone recording while we were recording, we were doing the actual record and he sent me an idea, which eventually became “That Memory”. So Charlie’s on the record; he’s got his fingerprints on the record. But also Richard Fortus has just called me out of the clear blue. Richard and I had played together on the first Dead Daisies record that I did. He just said, “Hey dude, I saw you’re doing a solo record. If you need any help with the guitars, I’m here for you”. So I sent him a couple tracks thinking he’d pick maybe one song, and he wound up doing all three and he sent them back and it worked. Then I had Paul Taylor, from Winger play some keyboards for me on the record. And it was just, honestly, this is probably the most organic effortless record that I’ve ever done in my life. This is weird. Everything just kind of fell into place.

I’m curious to see what you do next, because obviously following this up would be interesting.

I’m curious as well. I have no idea where I’m going with this.

Obviously it’s been a long time that, like I said, in the beginning, a long time for you, you been around for so long that you finally have a full album, a rock album that’s under your name and that, do you have any plans for playing it live ?

Well, we did three and a half weeks in Europe and the UK and it went over great. I’m going back in April to do maybe five more shows. I’m ending with, Frontiers Records does a music festival every year in Milan, Italy, so I’m going to do that. And then I’m coming back over. Let me see… I play the 3rd there, the 4th I’m on an airplane, and the 5th I start with Tom Kiefer in New Jersey, Tom Kiefer and BuckCherry. We’re doing a bunch of dates together. So, I’m going to have a busy summer it looks like

How much )of the new stuff) do you actually put into the set?

Maybe somewhere between a quarter and half, because we’re doing some Scream stuff. Now it depends because there’s three different versions of this set that I need to put together because I’m doing some headline shows on my own. And then when it’s just me and Tom, I think I’m playing about 40 to 45 minutes. And then when BuckCherry’s on the bill, I’m only doing like 35 minutes. So, depending on where you see me, the set’s going to be a little shorter, longer, whatever. But, when I do a full set, when I do like a 90 minute set there’s a little bit of Scream, some Union, some Motley, some Dead Daisies. And then I focus on about four or five tracks from the new record.

You did do one cover on this album, “Everyday. People”, the Sly And The Family Stone song.

Yes. Love that!

A very interesting choice.

My wife thought so too. She goes, “I have no idea how you’re going to pull this off”. And she couldn’t figure out, she’s like, “I don’t get how you’re going to do this”. But, Marti and I came up with a version and we recorded it and I brought it home and played it forward. She was like, “Holy shit, this is awesome!” So I’m really pleased with it.

You strike me as a guy that. while growing up, you would have had a very diverse record collection.

Absolutely. I still do. Obviously now our records are on our phones and in the cloud, but I’ve got everything from Sabbath to, (like I said earlier) Glenn Campbell, Frank Sinatra… I got some Tony Bennett,. So I run the gamut of music. I just love music and a good song is a good song, a bad song is a bad song. That’s the only categories you need to know about.

The other thing I want to ask you about is the album artwork. I like asking those guys that actually do the album artwork and get their stories. That’s a very interesting, very colorful cover and kind of jumps out.

If you do artwork, you’ll understand this, but I feel like this is a very ’60s, ’70s type record. Originally, I just wanted to find like something like a strong word, or something poetic that I could call the album. Finally I was just sitting here; I’ve got this little area in my back patio and I was sitting here having a whiskey and I’m listening to the record, and the more I listened to the song “New Day”, I liked the message. So I called my manager and I said, “I think I want to call the record ‘New Day'”, and he goes “Awesome!” It’s got a kind of a positive meaning and there’s a line” in the song that says “It’s a new day, just let the sun shine down on you. So I decided on the title and then I went on Google and I just wanted, like, I was looking for, I don’t know if you remember or not, but when I was a kid, I’m older than you, but I just remember seeing like those Hait-Ashbury Concert posters that they used to put on telephone poles. They were really colorful, like bright orange, or the old velvet paintings that they used to do back in the sixties and seventies. So I wanted something colorful, and I wanted to include like a sun image because of the lyrics. So I typed up sun image and the first thing that came up was the sun tarot card. And I’m like, “Oh, that’s kind of cool” Showed it to my wife, “Yeah, that’s kind of cool. It’ll look cool on a t-shirt”. So what I did is I looked up the meaning and the meaning was about rebirth, growth, positivity, just all these things. Okay, I like the meaning. I sent it to a friend of mine and I asked him to manipulate it. So everybody that knows me, knows my lot of people nicknamed me ‘Crabby’, so there’s a couple hidden crabs in the artwork and we squared it off and just made it more for like a CD or vinyl record. But then the other thing that was weird is there’s a Roman numeral on the card and it’s the number 19. I looked it up and the sun card is the 19th card in a deck of tarot cards. And I was like, “Well, that’s kind of weird because this is my 19th record”. So I just kind of manipulated a tarot card. I just loved the meaning of it. It was colorful and we made like some black t-shirts for when we were in Europe and that’s just on the front and it just looks awesome. So it’s colorful. It was very ’60s retro looking and it’s got a great meaning.

I want to ask a bit about the Dead Daisies and update, because obviously I saw that announcement yesterday with Glenn Hughes doing a show. When you left the band, was it on your own, like you had things to do? I look at the Dead Daisies, I’ve got those albums and I think, That’s kind of where you belong; that’s kind of like your home. So I was kind of glad to see when you rejoined. So what is the status right now with you guys?

Well, to be honest with you, like I was told last year that they were taking a year off. So to be quite honest with you, I was just as surprised when I saw the ads for the show as well. So I have no idea what, why they’re doing a show with Glenn. Couldn’t tell you.

I have no idea. I just been kind of focused on my solo career. Like, and, and it, and it, like I said, as far as I was told, they were taking a year off, and then we were going to get back on at things. They had already posted some dates for like March of 2027. So if you’re asking why they’re doing this show, I have no idea. That would be a question for them. I didn’t know about it yesterday. I got up and my phone just started blowing up my, the guys that handle my social media and friends are like, did you leave the Daisies again? And I’m like, “not that I know of”, I couldn’t tell you. So this was a kind of a left field curve ball from everybody.

So it appears to be a one-off show… I was curious. But when you actually left the band, how much of that was merely on your own…

It was my doing, you know, at the end of the day. When I first joined the band in 2015, Marco called me to ask me if I’d be interested in singing with this band that he was working with. And honestly, I was out doing those live ’94 shows. My son was playing drums with me, and we were doing ok, it was fine. So when Marco called and said “hey, do you want to come check this band put?”, I was “No, I’m good.” And he was “well, hear me out, and come and check this thing out.” So, I flew out to LA, and I had a meeting with David Lowy, Richard Fortis, and the manager. Initially it was “we’re going to tour half the year, and then you’ve got the other half of the year to do what you want. Your thing will help our thing, and our thing will help your thing.” And I’m, “yeah, Ok, I could probably do both.” So we went to Cuba, did those shows, and then we did the first record I did with them, which was called Revolucion, and mind you, when I got asked to do The Dead Daisies I didn’t even know who they were. My guitar tech told me “Oh yeah, it’s this band I saw last year. They opened for Kiss or whatever.” So, I just assumed that they’d use me in June and July, in the summer, and then I could go tour with my band in the winter, but when Revolucion came out…I don’t want to say it blew up, but it kind of blew up and started getting gigs. And for the next 3-4 years it became Do a record, go tour for 6,7, 8 months, then come back – do a record, tour for 6, 7, 8 months…. So, I’ve got my son in one ear “Oh great dad, I moved out to Nashville to be in your band, and now I never see you!” And I had a new wife; I’d just gotten married in August of 2014, and in February of 2015 I was in the Daisies. It was like I had to call her and let her know I was coming in so she wouldn’t shoot when I walked in the door.

So I just said to the guys “Look, I really appreciate the offer. I want to take a break; I want to hang out with my family, just kind of do my own thing at my own pace.” And they were like “Ok, cool”. And I was good with them. Even when they were with Glenn, there was a few times Glenn was sick, and with rehearsals I flew up to New York, and I sang whatever set they were doing with Glenn, and helped them run their paces. And then they went on tour with Glenn. So everything was good; I talked to everybody throughout the whole thing, and then Glenn decided to go back and do Black Country Communion or his Deep Purple shows, and David Lowy called and said “Hey, are you rested, are you ready to come back? Because if you’d want to come back, I’d love to have you back.” So I went back. I did the ‘Best of‘ tour with them, and then we did the blues record, and Light Em Up. I was just told we were having a year off this year. I was like “Ok, Awesome! I just got offered my solo deal. I can put out my record and go tour on it. And it won’t interfere with anything the Daisies are doing…. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it! (Lol)

I interviewed you years ago, around the time the 2nd Union album came out. I’m curious if you still keep in touch with Bruce (Kulick)?

It’s like we don’t really get to see each other that often because he’s out doing his thing, guitar clinics, and conventions, and I’m doing the Daisies or whatever I’m doing at the time. We still communicate; I mean I’ll text him on his birthday and vice versa. It’s weird, I’m going to do a Kiss convention in April, in Indianapolis, and I know Brent’s going to be there, and Chuck Garric, Eric Singer, a few friends, Paul Stanley…and I was hoping Bruce was going to be there, but I’ve been told Bruce has other comittments. Everybody’s Good in Union. It wasn’t like we fought and broke up. If you followed Union, you know what I’m talking about – we couldn’t get any support from radio, MTV, nobody. So Bruce got offered a better gig with Grand Funk Railroad , and I got offered a better (paying) gig with Ratt. And it just kind of fizzled. But we’re all still good. Like i said, on occasion I’ll talk to Bruce; Jamie still reaches out, he’s been on tour with Roger Daltrey, and Brent’s been out with his band Toque, and Slash & The Conspirators. We’re all still pals; it’s all good.

I saw you guys (Union) just after the second album, you played some bar in Buffalo or Niagara Falls, NY…

If it’s the one I’m thinking of, I will never forget it. It was a small bar, and it was hotter than balls in that place!

Yeah, I think we went out the side door because it was so hot.

Yeah, it was f**king ridiculously hot in that bar. I totally remember that place.

I don’t want to ask about Motley Crue, I’m sure you’re sick of talking about that…

(Thank You)

I do want to ask if there’s any prospect of you doing anything with Mick (Mars) ?

I haven’t talked to Mick because he’s going through a bunch of bullshit with lawsuits and stuff. But Mick and I were texting a month or so ago. I would love to sit down and write with Mick – something. i had an idea of what I thught Mick should do , and he didn’t necessarily agree… I was trying to get Mick to go in more of. almost like Mountain, just a heavy guitar tone, almost like a blues base to it. But Mick wants to do a certain thing, and that’s fine. I’d love to help him out. I love the guy to death. He is truly one of the nicest people in music, period! So, anything he needs from me, I’d be more than happy to help him with.

LINKS:

https://ffm.bio/johncorabi_newday

https://www.frontiers.it/album/6095

https://frontiers-us.shop/search?q=john+corabi&type=product
John Corabi Announces New Album ‘New Day’

https://www.facebook.com/JohnCorabiMusic

https://www.instagram.com/johncorabiofficial/

John Corabi – Union [Scream, Motley Crue] : Interview from the Archives (2000)

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In March of 2000 I interviewed John Corabi for the release of the 2nd Union album Blue Room.  There was also a live album released in there, but this would be the last from the band, which is a bit of shame. Corabi went on to record a number of other things, solo and with the Dead Daisies – which were all solid hard  rock albums. Unfortunately he left the Dead Daisies a while back, but here’s hoping he’s got something new in the near future. He released an excellent acoustic CD in 2013 and a live album in 2017, where he performed the Motley Crue 1994 album. He was also on a couple of releases by ESP [Eric Singer Project], which also included Bruce Kulick, and Chuck Garric [Alice Cooper].

Well, if ya liked the debut album from Union – featuring John Corabi [ex Motley Crue / Scream] and guitarist Bruce Kulick [ex Kiss] – you’ll  like this! “The Blue Room” is every bit as strong as the debut, yet a bit heavier in places, and bit more refined – sounding more like a distinct band than the debut [IMO]. Lead off tracks “Do Your Own Thing” and the Sabbathy riffs of “Dead” set a heavy, almost darker tone. “Everything’s Alright” is interesting lyrically more so, with it’s Beatles’ references; musically more reminiscent of Corabi’s Crue era. The Blue Room does have a few lighter moments such as the Kulick sang “Dear Friend” – which has acoustic verses before the pace and band kick in for the aggressive chorus. “I Wanna Be” is probably my fave here; it’s a bit lighter than the heavy stuff, and has a decent melody and vocal to it that make it stand out as memorable. A pretty decent HR album all-round. I recently had the opportunity to speak with singer John Corabi about the new album, and a few other aspects of his career. John was pretty cool and I wish them luck with the new album and tour.

How’s the response been to the new album?

It’s been pretty good, I mean the press has been cool to us, and radio’s embracing more than the last record. But it’s gonna take time getting this thing off the ground, ya know there’s still a little resistance [I guess] because basically we’re not the flavor of the month.

I found when the first album came out, it was a good album, and it got decent reviews and press in the metal mags and that, but I didn’t hear anything on the radio around here….

Yeah, it’s just weird! I mean, everybody’s concerned with playing the new Limp Bizcuit, Kid Rock, Korn – that kind of stuff; and that’s basically what’s happening right. What we’re doing which is just straight ahead rock n roll, as far as the radio stations go, is not in demand, but I find it really odd that when Poison and Motley Crue go on tour and they basically sold out last summer every show in America; I find it odd that there’s that many people at every show but according to the radio stations and MTV nobody really cares anymore. 

Union – Everything’s Alright – YouTube

About the Live album…Did that come about intentionally or kind of by accident? because it’s kind of an odd time for a ‘live’ album.

It’s definitely an odd time to do a record, but ya know the bottom line is Mayhem was falling apart, we had no support, and basically they went belly up and we were kinda out there with no support from a label, no label to be honest with ya! And we came back to LA and we did 2 shows with Cinderella, and the first show we did was at a place called the ‘Key Club’ here in Hollywood, and they were doing some recording for a live record. And the guy from the record label heard the band, and he thought that we were really cool, a great band live, and he wanted us to record our set as well and do a live record for his label, and we thought it might be kind of a cool idea considering we had no label and didn’t even know if we would get signed again, so we just figured it’d be a way for us to take those songs from the first album and kind of re-release them in a different format, and hopefully keep our fingers crossed that we were sitting on “Frampton Comes Alive” – ha ha…

It was a good live set because you did a couple of the Crue and Kiss things, and a cover of the Cheap Trick tune…

We also did The Beatles’ tune “Hide Your Love Away”.

I noticed on the new album there’s the one track that makes a lot of references to the Beatles.

Well, “Everything’s Alright”. I tried to make some kind of a statement but with using all Beatles’ titles. So it’s weird, it turned out that it’s a lot of peoples’ favorite tune on the record.

On the first album you and Bruce wrote everything. How does this album differ from the first one, were the other 2 guys more in to the writing?

Well yeah, we all kinda developed the songs together. the first record was Bruce and I in the studio with this guy Curt Cuomo, and we recorded it at home, and Curt basically sat down with us, and we all figured out what drum parts to play and played them on a drum machine, and then between me and Bruce playing guitars and stuff like that , we played all the guitars and bass, and then basically when James and Brent joined the band we just had them play what we already played. This time there was no demos, we had ideas on tapes, we just got together with Bob Marlette and jammed everything as a band, and we kinda sifted through what we thought were the 10 best ideas, and then we developed them as a band.

How did you hook up with Bob?

We actually have the same manager. I have 2 managers that I’ve had since my days with The Scream, and Bruce has a manager that – Larry Maser – who used to manage Kiss there for a while. So when we joined forces we kept our managers, and my managers and his manager work together. But my guys handle us and they handle Bob Marlette. So I guess they must’ve been playing him our first record and telling him we were getting ready to do another album, and see if he’d be interested in working with us. We sat down, and we talked with him for a while, and he had a lot of great ideas. So we said “all right, f**k – let’s try it! Cool”.

For a ’90s [2000] you guys keep it to 10 songs, where as a lot of bands go overboard these days and put like 15 songs on them, and half of it’s garbage and that. What’s changed over time that where bands are putting 14, 15 songs on albums…… ?

Well, I think that as a whole – if you look at society in general, everybody goes for quantity not quality, know what I mean!? And some of my records don’t even have 10 songs on them. There’s some Zeppelin albums that have like 7 tunes, Aerosmith’s “Get Your Wings” has like 8 songs it, but they’re all great! And we just wanted to make sure that we had a great album; and I hate when bands put out a record with like 14 songs and you get through the first 4 or 5 songs and the record just blows after that. So we just said “F**k it! Let’s just concentrate on 10 tunes; get them all dialed, write the best lyrics we can, write the best guitar parts, best vocals, and do the best production we can…” I guess it always boils down to how many records you sell; a lot of press and a lot of the radio interviews we’ve done they’ve said that, that the album is a complete record – it’s a great record from front to back.

How did you guys approach this differently, as far as what you were aiming for sound-wise. On the first Union album I could pick out certain Motley sounds and certain Kiss sounds, but this one you guys have a more definite sound of your own, and there’s not so many traces or ex bands and that; you know what I mean!?

Right. We’ve been together now 2 years, and that’s the idea. Any bands, like Zeppelin, The Beatles, Stones, or Aerosmith – they all kind of bartered on their past or influences. I mean Zeppelin on the first record or so was like heavy blues, and then as they started to grow and go further in to their career they started to develop, and they started to encorporate things like acoustic guitars, Indian sounding things, funk, and all this kind of stuff, and made it their own. The same with Aerosmith. And the Beatles and Stones – the first records they did were covers, and then they developed into great songwriters that they are. But I think, it takes any band, like in ours where you got 2 guys who got together and decided to put a band together with no real long-standing run in the clubs, I think it’s a great sounding record for a first album, and now it’s like we’re kinda growing in ourselves and we’re figuring out like the writing and stuff, and hopefully the next album will be even better. I just think that band’s are supposed to grow and figure out what their sound is, and as they go they kinda figure out where they’re going. 

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Where do you see Union fitting in [and I hate to use labels], but you have the metal labels and the newer alternative stuff, and you guys kinda come across the middle somewhere…..

To be honest with you, I think we’re kind of sitting on the fence. I don’t really consider us an old, yeah there might be a history there and there might be traces of where we came from, but we’re definitely not an alternative band either. Although if you look at it, we’re definitely an alternative to the alternative. Right now down here it’s all Korn, Limp Bizcuit, Kid Rock, Backstreet Boys, and we’re not jumping on a bandwagon, I don’t want to be a ‘flavor of the month’. Bands used to have 15 minutes of fame, now they got like 5! And I don’t want that! For me personally, I hate being mediocre, and settling for anything; I just do what I do, and do it the best I can. And that’s all I can do. I work hard; I like working real hard, and I like trying to give people my personal best every time that I go out and sing, or every time I step on stage – that to me is what it’s all about. And if people like it then that’s great; if they like it don’t that’s fine too, because I’m not making any changes; I don’t think people would buy it if I came out air-baggy pants on, and a hat with my hair in braids, and started doing rap or try to be like Limp Bizcuit — I don’t think it’d be believable.

As far as the lyrics go, what did you guys draw from?

Just life. Songs like “Do Your Own Thing”, “Dead”, and “Who Do you Think You Are” kind of have a common thread through. Basically those things are about like “I’m doing my own thing, and if you don’t like it – f**k you!” It’s like “this is how I feel the way I do, and dressing the way I dress, and looking the way I look….” And it’s good for people to have an opinion about things, but when they become condescending that’s what I f**king hate! Songs like “Shine” and “No More” – that’s just about life. You turn the news on any given day of the week, and it’s hard not to realize we live in a pretty shitty f**king society – where kids are going to school blowing other kids away…..it’s pretty shitty place! I think that if kind of take a step back and take a deep breath, somebody could make some changes, know what i mean!? But i think as a society we’re just content to sit on our fat asses and do absolutely nothing about it. I’m not trying to preach, but in my world – there’s a line in one of my Motley songs that’s “you can do what you want with your world, but my world ain’t gonna stay the same”. Ya know – I want to make a change, make everything better for myself and everybody around me. It’s just my way of telling people to take the blinders off.

What are you guys pushing to radio as far as a single?

Right now “Do Your Own Thing” is at radio in America, and is actually doing quite well; we got about 80 stations in America playing it, and we’ve got a great response from some of the tracks. Some people like it, some people don’t. But that’s why Baskin Robbins has 32 flavors of ice-cream — not everybody’s going to like the same thing. But that song’s doing really well, and a lot of people have been showing interest.

Are there any other songs that stand out personally for you, or any that have any sentiment or anything whatever…?

I don’t know, that’s a tough question. A lot of people ask that, that’s like asking me which testicle do I like better! ha ha – my left one or my right one! The thing that I like about music is depending on what mood you’re in you can create, and depending if you want something that sounds evil or somber there’s a song on there for all those different moods; I just like creating moods, and there all favorites in their own little way, they’ve all got their own little personality to them.

What happened with the ESP thing [Eric Singer Project]?

We kind of do occasional gigs here and there. It was only meant to be a fun thing. We went to a Kiss convention, and we just kind of jammed. The guy that ran the convention asked us if we wanted to record a few of those songs and sell them [basically] to the Kiss fans through the internet; and as it turned out some people bought it and liked it, and some happened to be presidents or vice-presidents of record labels, and the thing wound up getting a deal here in America, and one in Japan, and one in Sweden… so it actually did better than I thought it would do. It was all in fun, and it was cool thing to kinda sit around and talk with Bruce, Carl, and Eric about like when the time I got high at the Philadelphia Spectrum and saw Aerosmith, and we just started reminiscing. It was a blast doing it. We still do a few things once in a while, but when our regular schedules allow us to.

What else in the future plans for Union?

Just to go out on tour, and hopefully we’ll get some support from radio and MTV, and the bottom line is that hopefully the Canadian fans and the American fans will embrace what we’re doing, and we’ll continue to have a career. The bottom line of it is, is unfortunately this art that we call music is also a business and if we sell records then we’re going to be able to continue to make music; if we don’t sell records then what happens is bands get dropped. …. I still think there’s a lot of fans out there that want to go and see a guy walk on stage [and i hate to say it, but] have that rock star mentality. I think people are tired of seeing a guy on stage that looks like the guy that delivers their mail. And I think they wanna go and have fun and sing along, and have their balls kicked in, and have their loud music, and just live vicariously through the people they’re watching on stage. That’s what I’m all about. I love the kind of music that we do is the kind of music that we grew up listening to like the Zeppelins, the Aerosmiths, the Beatles, and the Humble Pie’s … and so that’s what I draw from. I think that there still is a lot of people out there that enjoy that kind of music.

Yeah there is; it’s unfortunate the way the business is.

It’s the industry [pardon the term] ‘gurus’ – that think they have their finger on the pulse of America or Canada, and it’s sad because it makes a lot of musicians like myself sound like we can’t stand bands like Limp Bizcuit or Korn – when in all actuality I love those guys; i think they’re f**king great! I know the guys in Korn, I wouldn’t say we’re friends but i can call them and I can sit down and talk to them, and to be honest a lot of those guys are fans of stuff that Bruce and I and Motley Crue and Scorpions and all this other kind of stuff; they’re fans of this kind of music, and they just took it and put their own twist on it. Unfortunately is when a band like that start selling all these records then all these industry jerk-offs decide that that’s what they need to sell. It’s what sells, so they go out and sign 50 bands like that, and hence the 15 minutes of fame gets cut down to 5 because the market just gets completely saturated with the same kind of music; and people get tired of it. You can listen to some R&B stations right now, and all you’re gonna hear is Backstreet Boys, then there’s N’Sync, and then there’s 98 Degrees – and they’re all the same; it’s just like a formula. I see the figures in magazines like Poll-Star where you have a band like Motley Crue or Poison, who are technically on paper not the flavor of the month, but when you see them go on tour and have astronomical numbers, and do astronomical amounts of business in the concert world it’s kind of makes you scratch your a*s and go ‘what the f**k is going on here!?’ And i think why don’t these people get it.

Were you familiar with Bruce before you actually hooked up with him?

Yeah; actually Bruce and Nikki used to hang out quite a bit; so Bruce used to come by the studio or hang out at Nikki’s house when there was like a birthday party or something; so I was familiar with him, and his wife at the time [Christina]. But as far as his work with Kiss, I gotta be honest — yeah I was familiar with songs like ‘Domino’ or different things I heard on MTV or the radio, but I wasn’t like a really big Kiss fan; I was when I was younger I got like the first Alive album and ‘Rock n Roll Over’ and I was a huge Kiss fan, and then after that I kinda went on to checking out bands like Humble Pie and Led Zeppelin, and I really got more into the British stuff.

Any favorite songs or reflections from the first Union album?

Well I was just telling my girlfriend the other day that I really thought the song “Empty Soul” should’ve been released as a single; I thought that was a really cool tune.

“October Morning Wind” was my favorite.

We did release “October Morning Wind” as a single, but again radio just didn’t embrace it. I think we had like 20 or 30 stations playing it – which isn’t bad, but if you really want to move records and become a household name you gotta have like 150 to 200 stations playing your song constantly.

Was ‘The Scream’ your first recording band?

I was in a band before that , and we did some recording for demos as different record companies had advanced us some monies to do demos, but nothing ever really came out of it. But as far as released to the masses, yeah it would be The Scream.

Got a favorite recording or memory from that era?

It was like 10 years ago; it’s weird how time flies! The whole time was just so new and so fresh and so fun. We were all green behind the ears; just pumped about being on a tour bus, and going into a studio with a guy like Eddie Kramer. We were just so excited about the whole thing that everything was amazing to us. It was our first opportunity to go over to London and play over there; it was a lot of fun. The whole thing is kind of a blur to me because it was all fun!

[Regarding the Crue album]. What can you tell me about the song “Drift Away”, as far as the lyrics..?

That’s actually a song I wrote right before I joined Motley, and I played it for the guys and they really dug it, so we just kind of kept it the way it was. It was just kind of one of those time where even though I had a lot of fun doing The Scream record and going on the tour, there was just so much shit that I wasn’t really prepared for. I wasn’t prepared for the politics in the music industry; and there was a lot of things that were happening like the label was pushing us to release this song and we wanted to release this other one, and then it kinda started to become like conflict and turmoil with the members of the band [The Scream]. So when I came home from the tour I kind of sat down and wrote that tune, and was kind of aggravated. It was like where ya just go to bed and you’re trying to figure out like ‘what the hell happened during your day’, and you get up the next morning and look in the mirror and you’re like ‘F**k – what am I doing? why am I doing this? It’s nothing but a headache!’ … And I was just really at the point where I didn’t like the way the label was handling things with The Scream, and I was actually contemplating just giving up and leave the band and not play music at all. It was weird; it was like no sooner said and Motley called – which gave me a whole new booster shot in the arm. But it seems weird sometimes when you’re at the end of your rope something will just come along and hook you for a little longer. 

Mötley Crüe-Hooligan’s Holiday – YouTube

Glenn Hughes was on the Motley record. How did you get him on there?

He was friends with Mick [Mars]. It was awesome, Glenn’s always been like one of my idols. So that was just insane having Glenn come in and do some vocals with me. Also Billy Preston came in and played on the record too. It was a blast – we had Glenn come in one day and Billy come in another day. But the song that Billy played on didn’t appear on that Motley record, there was another record called ‘Coronary’, and Billy plays on a song called “Baby Kills”. And we hung out, and be jamming and talking with him, and Billy would break into the keyboard solo of “Get Back”.

You’re involved in some of the Tribute projects that Bruce and Bob Kulick are as well….

Yeah I’ve done a few, probably more than I should’ve, but these record companies call up and ask if I want to sing on a track or 2. Some of them are really cool, but other ones I don’t really care for because I’ll go in and sing ’em and then they take them and they do these industrial remixes. I’m a traditionalist – I like hearing 2 guitars, bass and drums, and some of that stuff is just not my bag.

What are you currently listening to?

It’s weird I’ve got everything from Erica Badue to Led Zeppelin. I’ve got Jemerique. My girlfriend went out and got the Tommy Lee record. I like this band ‘Fuel’, Marylin Manson’s last record I thought was real cool. I’ll listen to anything if it’s good. Oddly enough I thought that Backstreet Boys song “I Want It That Way” – love it or hate it [and I know they played the shit out of it!], but if you just break it down and listen to the song – it’s a well written tune. And I think Celine Dion has an amazing voice as well.

Are you friendly with any of The Crue guys?

Yeah, I’ve been talking with Nikki, not on a regular basis because he’s so busy. But everything’s cool now, we’ve actually patched up our differences, and we’ve actually done some talking about possibly doing some writing again in the future.

You mentioned your favorite singers before – Plant, Tyler, and Paul Rodgers. Do you like Steve Marriot?

Yeah I liked Steve Marriot too.

Guitar players? Bands?

I love Jimmy Page; i think Page is amazing! Hendrix was great. I think George Harrison was completely underrated. But I also like Eddie Van Halen, and the guy from Rage Against The Machine – Tom Morello – I think he’s awesome. I love a lot of different bands; but again a lot of stuff I listen to is old classic bands like Sabbath, Zeppelin – all the old stuff, because basically all the new stuff today is derived from it, so why not go to the source!? But [as i said before] I love Zeppelin and Humble Pie, and some of my favorite bands are Aerosmith, Grand Funk … Grand Funk was just brilliant — vocally and they all played their asses off, and they wrote great songs.

Anything else you want to add in regarding anything or the new album?

I just want to thank everybody for supporting the band, and hopefully we’ll get up to Canada and do some shows for you guys.

union bio 3union bio 2 

www.johncorabi.com

UNION Featuring JOHN CORABI And BRUCE KULICK – Vinyl Reissues Coming Soon – BraveWords

KJJ,   03 / 2000,

Bruce Kulick – Union [Kiss] : Interview from the Archives (1998)

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In 1998 I had the opportunity to interview Bruce Kulick for his new band ‘Union’ (which also featured John Corabi). This was a fun conversation, as I got to inquire about Bruce’s work with Billy Squier and Kiss, as well as the new album from him & Corabi in Union. A few months later Union played a club show over in Buffalo [or nearby….I can’t remember the name of it]. I went with a buddy, had a good time, got a few pics, as well I had Bruce sign my Alive 3 poster – I had had the other 3 Kiss signatures on it already, but at the Alive 3 promotional signing years before I had pulled out a Black Jack LP for Bruce to sign first and then when I pulled out the poster – security stepped in, as there was only 1 signature per guest. So, I was glad to get it signed and hang it it up. I interviewed Bruce again, some years later for his first solo album. I will follow this up with my Corabi interview I did for the release of Union’s 2nd album.

Bruce was with KISS from 1985 to ’95, making him the band’s longest serving guitar player. He is currently promoting his new project ‘UNION’, which features ex MOTLEY CRUE / SCREAM singer John Corabi, Canadian drummer Brent Fritz, and bassist Jamie Hunting. The band’s debut album on Mayhem Music is heavy, yet the songs retain a somewhat commercial edge and melody. Personally, I like it a lot more than the last KISS album! UNION is definitely a band to watch for in the near future! 

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Billy Squier – You played on his first album. What do you recall of that album?

I really like that album; I really enjoyed that record! He wanted to hire Brian May from QUEEN – and he knew Brian. So for him to settle on me, I was very flattered, as you can imagine. I saw him work very hard. That wasn’t the record that put him over the top, as you know, but there was good material on that album.

I thought that album was a little underrated.

Absolutely! But, you saw the talent the guy had, and the vision. It was just going to happen a year later on the next record. It was a good experience. He asked me to go on the road but I couldn’t because of my band with Michael Boltin at the time, which was called ‘BLACKJACK’. But it worked out. I might not have been available for KISS if I was on the road with Billy Squier.

You did “Rich Kid” on that album, your brother did Paul Stanley’s album and the tracks on “Killers” (KISS).  that riff on “Rich Kid” is very similar to “Tonite You Belong To Me” (from Stanley’s album) and “Nowhere To Run” (from Killers).

Well, Paul’s solo record was in some ways like the style Billy Squier was doing at the time, so there was a common thread there – which is just like really cool poppy-rock ‘n’ roll. And they knew each other; they were part of that whole New York scene, New York – Boston. 

Regarding KISS, what were some highs and lows of your time with the band?

There was some very exciting times! Like playing Madison Square Gardens, doing Donnington in England, Maple Leaf Gardens – that was fun too. Certain places like South America, traveling to Japan, having kids camp outside your hotel, you know! And going to Europe, Sweden with everybody screaming and stuff! A lot of that kinda stuff. And also doing some cool TV shows like Jay Leno, Conan O’Brien – all those kind of highlights! I guess the only lows I had was obviously that sometimes the relative success of the albums being up and then down. Another highlight was the MTV Unplugged thing, and that also became bitter sweet because that pushed the reunion thing that happened, so that of course being the ultimate low. 

Any favorite tracks or albums?

“Unholy”, “Forever”, “Tears Are Falling”. A lot of stuff from Revenge – I really dug. There’s a couple of things on Carnival that really showcased me; so again throughout all the albums there’s some things that stand out. 

Kiss – Unholy (Official Music Video) – YouTube

Did you ever get, I wouldn’t say upset, but a little miffed by perhaps being overshadowed musically by the mystique that surrounded Kiss, a lot of the hype and that??

There’s no doubt there’s a shadow of the make-up era which has not as much to do about music as that ‘set’ element of Kiss – which is an important one, even though I still feel the band was able to hold it’s own as an exciting rock group. But it turns out that’s a part of the band you can’t shake from it. No matter how much you’re pictured without make-up and then going on out there just like any other band. I still think there was a certain attitude and style of the band without make-up that was very different; but it’s hard to compete with platform boots and rockets shooting out of your guitar, and the ‘space’ out-fits, ya know!? And I’m not saying that to take anything away from that; all that’s entertaining and exciting, but it does create a certain thing that you can’t even compare with it, because you’re not playing in the same field. Eric Carr had the ‘fox’ for a while, and even Vinnie (Vincent) became a make-up character, and I think that worked, but I never had that opportunity, and the band never put the make-up on with me, so it was a different form of the band.

Did you ever feel your own playing got over-shadowed by Gene and Paul doing all the interviews and everything?

I knew, press-wise, that the story would always be Gene and Paul’s thing, ’cause they created the band. And even with the make-up and reunion thing – they mostly do the interviews. I’m just really proud that obviously, with UNION, I have a lot to say and a lot to be proud of! You know, the press are going to choose where they feel the story is. 

Do you still have contact or connections with the (KISS) guys at all?

Yes, everything’s been really cool with the guys. I just recently gave them a couple of the discs, advanced CDs, and Paul asked me to help him on some of his songwriting demos – to decide which songs he was going to present for the next album. So, that was kinda cool. He’s very comfortable with me, and I really enjoyed playing guitar with him; we know how to communicate that way. So he hired me to do that kind of work, and that’s exciting!

You’ve probably been asked this a million times, but can you clarify – regarding ‘Creatures Of The Night’ – if and what you played on that album?

Actually, I played nothing on that album. At the time Ace wasn’t in the band, so they had a lot of different players on that record; from Dick Wagner to Robin Ford! He played the solos on a couple of things like “I Still Love You”. And Steve Ferris, the guy from MR MISTER, played the solo on the song “Creatures Of The Night”. But basically what happened on that record was they didn’t know what was going on with Ace, and it was obvious, I think, he was going to leave or whatever. That was a good record that got over-looked. And then later, when I joined, I think they said “OK – let’s put a new cover on with the non make-up band. Since you do some of these songs maybe we can sell it like that!” – which was a stupid idea! But, the record companies will always look at ways to try and increase the profits and sales. But, I think it was a mistake that they did it; and there I am on the picture. I didn’t ask to do it, you know!?

Have you read any of the KISS books that have come out recently?

“Black Diamond” – I read. That was kinda cool! I have “Kiss and Sell” – but have not read it yet, next plane ride I’ll take it along. And I still haven’t read “Kisstory”, …but I was there – I know it! (ha ha).

How was the Black Diamond book?

I did find some things that weren’t actually correct, but I realize he’s relying on a lot of different things. It’s kinda weird to read about a situation you’re so close to. I did enjoy it though! 

Thoughts on ‘Carnival Of Souls’??

I’m really happy that it came out, of course, because it was so heavily bootlegged, and there was songs missing on the bootleg, the sound quality was terrible. I wanted people to hear it the way we recorded it and mixed it. I spent a lot of time working on that record; we all worked very hard on it. I’m a little disappointed with the packaging, but when I weigh that against whether it’d be out or not – I’m thrilled to death! So, overall I really can’t complain about it – I’m just excited that it finally got released in it’s full sonic glory.

Favorite tracks??

I love “I Walk Alone”. “Jungle” is great! “Master And Slave”. There’s some really interesting playing from me, a lot of different songs. There’s nothing I really dislike on the record. It was certainly a very heavy – dark album. And Toby, the guy who produced it with the band, and mixed it – even mixed it really dark. But I think it stands on it’s own for what it was.

What influenced some of the heavier – darker sounds on it, compared to previous albums?

“Revenge” had some darker stuff on it, maybe not quite as dark as this, but we were kinda getting more into some heavy riffs, and it wasn’t calculated. It was like – I came up with a lot of really dark riffs, which was fun to do. “Childhood’s End” and “I Walk Alone” certainly aren’t that dark sounding at all. But, it just evolved as a real guitar heavy – crunchy record. We’d fooled around with alternate tunings before, but everybody was writing some really heavy riffs in some of those tunings, so it just went a little bit on the heavy side there.

What’s the story behind you and John [Corabi] meeting? Did the high profiles play a part?

Well, on paper – of course the high profiles look like – “wow! this could be cool!”, but it wouldn’t have mattered how cool we look on paper if we didn’t get along and realize we’re into the same kinda music, you know!? And that was the beauty – as soon as I started playing a riff he responded well. We were both having a lot of personal things in our lives, we were in upheaval at the time, and both had careers in a new direction – not knowing where we were heading with. So, there was a lot to bond over. And it turned out that the music just came together very easily – very easy to create, and it was obvious that we were meant to work together.

Was it easy to find a deal?

It was a little difficult. Our first batch we didn’t really play for a lot of people, but we had a couple of acoustic songs on it, and people didn’t understand, you know – “what are they doing?”. But we had to keep writing, and by then we shopped a real cool tape – 4 songs. There was some people at real major labels that really liked it, but there was no way they were going to get it past their ‘higher ups’, because very few rock bands in the whole sense of what UNION is about have been signed of late, and I think they’re missing out. But “Mayhem” got it right away. This is what we’re into, and this is what we want to do. We didn’t try to calculate the market or create something that’s like “OK – this is what the labels are looking for!” We didn’t do a KISS or MOTLEY record because we’re not Kiss or Motley – we’re UNION!

The band’s based on you and John. How much of a part did Jamie and Brett play?

Both of them are very creative. In the sense of songwriting, they weren’t actually involved as songwriters, but certainly they were very creative on their instruments. Jamie’s a really great bass player and moves around in a really cool fashion. He’s definitely a master at his instrument. At times, because he was re-creating some of the demos, because he came in a little later, he had to take some suggestions from me, and I think he was appreciative a lot, because he knew it worked. And Brent was there a little earlier, so some of the beats that are on the record were right there from the ‘formative stages’ – so to say. We’re really proud of their contributions – John and I. It is a band; I wouldn’t want anyone to think that they’re just hired guns. We’re gonna sink or swim all together on this, and profit or not together. We’re not in a position to ‘hire anybody”, so we’re all along for the ride, bumpy or not!

How does the songwriting work with you and John?

Well, generally – he’d play me a riff, I’d play him a riff; he’d come up with something and I’d go “what’s that?”, you know. And off we’d go. Sometimes we’d have a song done in a half an hour, sometimes it would take 3 days. We really worked hard on it, and our co-producer – Kirk Cuomo, got involved in writing and helped out – did a lyric that was missing, an inception or a bridge. We all really worked hard on it.

You both play guitar and (presumably) sing!?

I’m not as strong of a singer as John, but yes.

Is there a lot of duo guitar on the record, or do you do most of the guitar work?

John is just about on every song, on a rhythm track as a scruff guitar, so he was very involved in, you know – “laying that track”. I did more work on guitars, because that’s my job. John’s a good guitarist, very valuable for the whole situation.

I’ll tell you, I’ve had the album for about a week now and I quite like it because it’s got the heaviness of the last Kiss album, and it’s got a certain ‘rawness’ – production wise. And it’s also got a lot of melody and it’s very radio accessible, I think.

Thank you!

Not to put down the last Kiss album, but “Union” is a lot more accessible as far as the harmonies.

I think Union overall – is a bit more melodic than Carnival… Again, it’s not intentional, it’s just what we wanted to do.

What are some of your favorite tracks?

I love ’em all – I gotta tell you! There’s certain songs that really feature me. 

Union - Union CD. Heavy Harmonies Discography

Anything that stands out as far as being a single?

I think “Old Man Wise” is great start to show people – “hey – we kick ass, and here we are!” It’s got some real catchy riffs and parts in there. “October Morning Wind” is a very cool acoustic song that I can hear it crossing over. “Pain Behind Your Eyes” has definitely got a very catchy hook that people seem to remember and point out to me as being real hooky. I love “Let It Flow” because of the whole ‘opus’ of it. It’s a long song, with a lot of guitars and stuff. But like I said – I dig all the songs. “Tangerine” – sometimes I can’t get that out of my head! I just dig the album, you know!? 

Love (I Don’t Need It Anymore) – YouTube

And even the ballad type songs like “Love Don’t Need Anymore” have got quite a bit of bite to them.

Yes!

Any favorite guitar solos?

The stuff on Let It Flow – I’m really quite proud of. There’s a couple of different solos in the songs and each one is a different level of intensity, shall I say!? One’s where I’m showing off a little more classic melody type of thing, and then like Jimmy Page, and then I kinda brewed some nasty unholy thing with the wah-wah. So, it was kinda nice to spread out on that and play a couple of different things. I think the solo on “Empty Soul” was cool. I’m proud of them all! There’s even a little ‘trip of the back-woods’ thing in the song “Get Off My Cloud”. So for all you classic guitarists trying to figure it out – you’re not gonna get it buddy! (ha ha).

“October Morning Wind” – was that Zeppelin influenced at all?

Actually, when I came up with the music for that I was thinking of an old Cream song that had this half-step kind of acoustic thing going on. I forget the title now. Anything from that era I’m turned on to!

Favorite guitar players?

Oh, definitely – Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Eddie Van Halen, Brian May…there’s a few there!

Anything to add?

I just want to thank all the Kiss fans who have been supportive over these years, and I hope that they give Union a shot, and they come to check us out live. Mayhem’s really behind us, so if you have any trouble finding it – they have a ‘888’ number (which is toll-free). For this kind of music we need everybody to make the effort. It’s us vs the Spice Girls, you know!? (ha ha!)

union bio 1

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UNION Featuring JOHN CORABI And BRUCE KULICK – Vinyl Reissues Coming Soon – BraveWords

KJJ,  01/1998