KIX FRONTMAN STEVE WHITEMAN ON THE BAND PUTTING OUT NEW MUSIC, “WE WOULD LOVE TO DO IT, BUT IT’S GOT TO MAKE SENSE”
Angel Alamo spoke with Kix frontman, Steve Whiteman. Excerpts from the interview appear below.
Angel Alamo: How did you guys come up with the title for the new album, [Rock Your Face Off] and were there any other titles for the album being considered?
Steve Whiteman: I was reluctant for the title. I wasn’t really a big fan of calling it Rock Your Face Off. I thought Can’t Stop The Show would have been a much more appropriate title but we have a song called Rock Your Face Off and apparently there was banter going around among management, record company, and Mark Schenker who was in charge of doing mixing and help set up the record deal. They just went ahead and thought we would all be ok with it. Now, that it is all set and done it doesn’t really matter. I wasn’t a big fan of it initially.
Angel Alamo: Being it was 19 years between albums did the band feel nervous about putting out Rock Your Face Off?
Steve Whiteman: No not at all. Once we realized after we got together and did some pre-production. We first thought about doing it we threw so much material at Taylor like 25 songs he narrowed it down to 12 songs. When we worked on those 12 songs we came away feeling really good about it. Then a couple of songs like Rock Me With Your Top Down and Can’t Stop The Show came in as later additions on top of what we worked on and we felt that we had a pretty strong record.
Angel Alamo: How do you keep your voice in great shape?
Steve Whiteman: I teach vocals, so I took training. I know how to protect myself and keep myself strong. Sharing that with people for the past 20 years has kept me really strong, so I have been fortunate and I work really hard at it.
Angel Alamo: What has been the key to the band’s longevity, music wise you never follow the trends, you guys are like an AC/DC where the band just wants to rock and put on a great show?
Steve Whiteman: Exactly, we are about fun, we are not preachy. We are not going to tell people what to do or how to live their lives. We are not going to glamorize politics. We are about let’s get a beer, let’s pick up a girl, let’s get f*cked up and have some fun. It has always been about having fun. People come up to me sometimes and say my friend just passed away can you give him a shout out on stage. I’m like no, that is not why people are here. People are not here to be bummed out. They are here to have a good time. They want to forget about that stuff. That has always been our approach, have a good time make the people have a good time and forget your troubles for a couple of hours.
Angel Alamo: Can fans expect a new album next year or in 2017 or will you release an E.P or put out singles?
Steve Whiteman: We’re now just starting to think about another record. We are not shooting it down. We got to look at what the logistics of what the last one did. If it’s just a waste of time. Records don’t sell anymore how many people are downloading it we are not sure. How many people are stealing it we don’t know. We don’t even care we just want the music out there so we can go out and play it live. If we go and try to play new music and they don’t know what the hell it is then it’s no fun. For us we would love to do it, but it’s got to make sense. We have to find a way to hit the people and make them want to buy it. It isn’t just us it’s everybody having trouble with record sales. A lot of people have just given up. 20,000 is considered really good. 20,000 is a piss in the bucket compared to what we used to do. We used to do 80,000 alone in Baltimore/Washington area alone back in the day. Those days are gone, long, long gone.
Read more at angelalamo.com.
source: angelalamo.com
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