BUCKCHERRY Frontman: 'We Wanna Write Songs That Are Unforgettable'

Niclas Müller-Hansen of Sweden's Metalshrine recently conducted an interview with vocalist Josh Todd of Californian rockers BUCKCHERRY. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Metalshrine: What made you write about the seven deadly sins?

Josh Todd: Because it's timeless, and I've struggled with moderation my whole life, along with other things. I think everybody has things, and I think everybody struggles with addiction at some point in their lives and they have to moderate. It's difficult, because if something feels good, you just wanna keep doing it.

Metalshrine: Being in the business that you are, it must be much more difficult doing things in moderation since you come across a lot of this all the time.

Josh Todd: Yeah, but when you're on the other side of it… I've been sober for 18 years and when you see people doing stuff, it's not attractive, you know. You see things from a different perspective and it's not very attractive, so it's not that hard.

Metalshrine: Looking back on the first album back in '99, how would you compare the band today to the band back then? Besides being older and wiser and so on.

Josh Todd: Well, it's been a different lineup, but this lineup is the one we always wanted. We've been together now for eight years and we've done over a thousand shows and we still get along really great. It was just a different band for those first two records.

Metalshrine: Being on the road and you spend a lot of time together, is it hard staying good friends or does it just come easy? You see each other all the time. Is there a lot of friction?

Josh Todd: Nah, there's no friction. I mean, you do get tired being around each other and that's just normal. The key is that when something bothers us, we just talk it out and that's what we do. We get right to the point when it happens. If you have problems and they itch for too long, they become bigger than they originally were when they started and that's when you start not getting along. We just address things when they come up and we have a good time.

Metalshrine: You've done a lot of videos. Is it still fun and is there a need for videos these days?

Josh Todd: Yeah, it's another marketing tool, but it's not like it used to be, of course. There's not a forum for it, but you can't control the market anymore because there's the worldwide web. There's no MTV and you don't have to wait for a record, you just get on the Internet and get it. They have access to their artist from their rooms. It's just a much different world than it used to be, so you just have to roll with that and deal with it accordingly. We always concentrate on making records.

Metalshrine: When you sit down to write songs for an album, is there ever the thought of writing a song that could make it onto radio or don't you think about that at all?

Josh Todd: Well, yeah, we wanna write songs that are unforgettable and I think a hit song is unforgettable and that's why it becomes a hit. Everybody likes it and it resonates with them and they remember it and wanna hear it again. When you hear a BUCKCHERRY record, we always have big hooks and that's something we're always into, so if it doesn't move us, it doesn't go on the record.

Metalshrine: You became a father when you were 23. Did that in any way stand in your way of doing what you were doing? Did you sacrifice family in any way?

Josh Todd: I sacrificed a lot. It motivated me, because at that time in my life, I was in a bad place. I had a massive alcohol and drug problem at the time. I had no money, so my first child, my daughter, was a turning point for me in getting my life together. I didn't want her to see me fucked up, like I experienced when I was a kid so that was a big motivating factor. All it did was make me get better as an artist. I always tell her that, that she was the turning point.

Read the entire interview from Metalshrine.