MYLES KENNEDY Talks Working With SLASH, Upcoming Solo Album

Niclas Müller-Hansen of Sweden's Metalshrine recently conducted an interview with Myles Kennedy of ALTER BRIDGE and Slash's (VELVET REVOLVER, GUNS N' ROSES) solo band. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Metalshrine: Tell me about the new Slash album ["Apocalyptic Love"]? How many songs were actually written since there's a bunch of different bonus tracks?

Myles: Yeah, I'm trying to remember… I think the total written might hover around 18 or something in that area and then I think we ended up recording 15 of them. I believe so.

Metalshrine: How did you work? Was it you and Slash doing the most of it or was it a group effort?

Myles: As far as the writing goes, Slash and I wrote the songs and brought the songs to Todd [Kerns, bass] and Brent [Fitz, drums] and started arranging them as a band and they were very helpful in that respect, as was Eric Valentine, the producer. There were different stages that helped us achieve our goal.

Metalshrine: What did Valentine bring to the whole production of the album? Did he bring ideas for songs as well?

Myles: Eric's great and a really great filtering process, which is what you want with a producer. Somebody whose instincts you trust, so he would certainly help with the arrangements and parts and he was very involved. I have a lot of respect for Eric and he's probably one of the best producers in the business. He's so passionate and he works so hard. Not only was he producing it, but he was engineering and he mixed it and mastered it. He did everything in that respect, so it was pretty incredible.

Metalshrine: Your solo album, is that finally coming out this year or what's the plan?

Myles: Nah, with this record coming out, we're gonna be touring extensively so there is just no window of time. That is probably the hardest part, trying to get that finished up and out there and just finding a period where I can promote it somewhat. Not just throw it to the wind and it'll disappear.

Metalshrine: Is it all done?

Myles: You know what, it's written and the music is all recorded and we just have to take about two weeks and record the vocals. The lyrics are done and all that. My friend Brian Sperber, who did the record with me, I just have to go to his studio in New York and knock out the tracks and finish them up and mix them.

Metalshrine: What other guys are on the record?

Myles: It's actually a lot of friends, local friends of mine from here in the north west for the time being and Slash was kind enough to offer his guitar prowess on a track which turned out really cool and then I have some other friends to bring in as well, so we shall see.

Metalshrine: What kind of style of music is it? Leaning towards ALTER BRIDGE or Slash's stuff?

Myles: You know, it's actually… people who have heard it say it's closer to my previous band back in the late '90s, THE MAYFIELD FOUR. It kinda has that vibe to it. It's something that I'm really excited to get out one of these days. It's definitely different from both SLASH AND THE CONSPIRATORS and ALTER BRIDGE stuff.

Read the entire interview from Metalshrine.