SLASH Says 'Living The Dream' Is 'First Pro Tools Record' He Has Ever Made

Slash has revealed to Japan's "Rock City" that his upcoming fourth solo album, "Living The Dream", is the first record he has made using the digital audio workstation Pro Tools after recording all his previous LPs to analog tape.

The "Living The Dream" sessions, which commenced in late March, saw Slash and his SLASH FEATURING MYLES KENNEDY AND THE CONSPIRATORS bandmates Myles Kennedy (vocals),Brent Fitz (drums),Todd Kerns (bass and vocals) and Frank Sidoris (guitar and vocals) reunite with producer Michael "Elvis" Baskette, who also helmed 2014's "World On Fire". But while the producer stayed the same, the studio this time changed, with Slash opting to move operations to his newly active recording facility, Snakepit Studios.

"We didn't do drums [at Snakepit] because it just doesn't have a high enough ceiling for [that], but for everything else, it's great," Slash told "Rock City". "I mean, it's only a 16-track board in there, and we did this entire record on that. We mixed over at Elvis's place in Florida, but other than that, it's totally functional, and it sounds really good."

"It's just too expensive making analog records for me, out of pocket, because in this day and age of making records, the chances of you seeing a return on a record that cost you a hundred thousand dollars or more to make, it just isn't really cost effective," Slash explained. "So we did it on Pro Tools and we just bounced everything into 40-some-odd tracks."

Slash went on to say that he "very concerned" at first about making a Pro Tools album, but his mind was put at ease by Elvis's assurance that everything would turn out to his satisfaction. "Elvis is pretty much a genius, so he is somebody that appreciates analog recording as well," Slash said. "He's one of the best guys at taking a digital recording and making it sound warm enough. All things considered, when I listen to this record we just did, it doesn't strike me right off the bat as a digital record. So that's really all you are striving to do — just make something that sounds warm and doesn't have that digital click to it. So I think we've managed to pull it off."

"Living The Dream" will be released on September 21 via Slash's own label Snakepit Records, in partnership with Roadrunner Records.

The group's North American headlining tour begins September 13 in Los Angeles, visiting 20 major cities including New York, Denver, Philadelphia, Boston, Washington D.C., Chicago, Austin, Houston, and more before ending October 14 in Sacramento.