CHASTAIN's LEATHER LEONE To Guest On BENEDICTUM Frontwoman's Solo Album

BENEDICTUM singer Veronica Freeman and CHASTAIN frontwoman Leather Leone were interviewed on the latest edition of "The Classic Metal Show", which is heard live on Saturdays from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m. EST at TheClassicMetalShow.com. You can now listen to the chat using the audio player below.

Veronica (pictured below) is currently recording a solo album which will be released under the moniker THE V. She states, "I had a lot of input and encouragement from Frontiers in the previous months to try and stretch myself with different musical styles and approaches. So I have decided to accept their proposal for a solo album."

Musically, Veronica is pursuing a much more melodic and hook-friendly direction. John Herrera is producing this endeavor and there should be some special guests appearing in the writing and performing department, including Leone, a song from Jerry Dixon from WARRANT and some bass performances from Brad Lang from Y&T and Jeff Pilson. BENEDICTUM guitarist Pete Wells will also show his other side with some of the music he is contributing to this project.

Speaking to Examiner.com, Freeman stated about how the idea for her solo album came about: "The story happened is that the owners of Frontiers, the president and vice-president, happened to be in Los Angeles this year when I had the broken-foot thing. I live in Phoenix now, but I didn't want to miss a chance to meet them. So I went up there and we had lunch together. They told me they really believe in my talent, all that stuff. I was flattered and it was great to hear. But being so ingrained in metal, it was really kind of frightening to not do metal. The proposition was to do a solo based on the concept of you, meaning what we had done, but it will be a lot more melodic hard rock, a lot more hook-oriented. So [laughs], I was like, 'Wow! That's really cool!' It kind of morphed from 'We'll give you the songs' to 'You can write them, but we have to kind of approve them first.' That allowed me to still write with Pete, so it's still a Wells-Freeman type of thing, but he has so much other music too. So it worked out well, actually. And as long as it wasn't going to be too tame! It's definitely melodic; some of it rocks, but some is really soft too. I'm doing a tune that Jerry Dixon from WARRANT submitted, which was kind of cool and some music from some other people. So, I just have to get used to it, do you know what I mean?"

She added: "It's out of my comfort zone a little bit. Some of the songs are right there and I'm like, 'This will be fun!' Others are, I'm not going to lie to you, I'm like 'I don't know!' but then as the songs develop, I'm, like, 'Okay, I can see where this is going.' Jeff actually played bass on about four tracks, which was very cool of him to do. We have other musicians and stuff, but it's still pretty much me, Pete, and Rick [BENEDICTUM and ex-JAG PANZER drummer Rikard Stjernquist] for the most part, so we'll see how it goes."