Mark Slaughter, lead singer of the multi-platinum band Slaughter, is currently in the studio recording a collection of songs that he wrote for his first-ever upcoming solo release.
With the chance to work with legendary producer Michael Wagener at the helm mixing and masterging the record, Mark is playing all instruments on the album with the exception of drummer Mark Goodin. His guitar playing rivals the greats out there and his vocals are spot on with a musical range that is par-excellence. Still in the band Slaughter and continuously touring with his band, Mark had years of music creativity stored up and has now decided it is time to share it with the world.
This Spring Mark released a new single, Never Givin’ Up, his first ever solo track, to rave reviews on radio stations across the country.
The song salutes the military and all who have served, with a portion of the proceeds going to the Red Circle Foundation that assists families of the US Special Operations Forces.
In addition to the Red Circle Foundation, Slaughter actively participates in charity work including with St. Jude’s hospital.
Behold the new LP from 2014 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Ace Frehley. Space Invader will be released in the US on August 19th through eOne Music.
Like a shooting star headed toward earth from another solar system, Ace Frehley operates in his own musical galaxy. He’s a musical maverick and iconoclast adored by millions of fans around the world. Through his seminal work with KISS and as a solo artist, Ace Frehley is championed as one of the most influential guitar players of the last four decades and his impact on popular music is immeasurable. With his smash 1978 solo album and post-KISS work including 2009 Anomaly, Frehley continues to be the best selling member of the original band.
Discussing the new album, Frehley says, “Fans can expect something closer to my ’78 solo record,” Frehley reveals. “Over the past couple of months I’ve been listening to my old records and trying to find that formula that I’ve captured so many times in the past. I recently played some of my new music for a few people at my label and they were blown away. It reaffirmed in my mind that I’m on the right path and I think my fans are going to love the results. It’s gonna be a great record.”
Greg Prato of Songfacts spoke with Winger frontman Kip Winger about songwriting, the music business, and the stories behind some of his band’s biggest hits. Excerpts appear below.
Songfacts: Let’s start by discussing Winger’s new album, Better Days Comin’.
Kip Winger: I’m terrible with coming out with some kind of thing that I’m going to say for the album. I just write – we write the exact same way we’ve always written since the ’80s: Set up a drum machine, write some riffs, and once we get the stuff the kind of quality we want riff-wise, then we start to shape the arrangements.
This album has a mixture of a little bit of everything that people know us for on it, so for me it’s one of the quintessential records that we’ve done – there’s something for everybody that is into us on this album. But it’s not diverse to a fault. It’s got a lot of the different types of things that we do on it. And I think it’s sonically one of our best albums. We’re all pretty happy with it. Not just because it’s our new record – when I came out with my second record, there’s tons of stuff I would have changed, so it doesn’t always go well.
Songfacts: Is it primarily still you and Reb doing the majority of the songwriting and collaboration?
Kip Winger: Yeah. That’s the sound of the band for Winger records. I have three different things I do: solo records, classical music, and the band. And the sound of Winger is when Reb plays guitar and I play bass and we write from that perspective. We wrote 80 percent of the material, and then John Roth had a couple of tracks on there. If I’m doing a Winger album, that’s pretty much the way I have to do it or else it really won’t even sound like us.
Songfacts: How was it collaborating with Alice Cooper on songs like Roses on White Lace and also Prince of Darkness?
Kip Winger: We never collaborated in a room together. I did those with Kane. We just wrote some ideas and Alice probably wrote over them, which is the way a lot of stuff goes on nowadays. So I really wouldn’t know, honestly speaking. But he’s a great lyricist. He’s got a lot of great ideas, and he’s incredible. I can’t say that I’ve sat in a room with him and written a tune, but I have seen it back in the day. You know, he’s the same as everyone else: You sit around and wrack your brain until you come up with something that you dig.
I think you could ask any songwriter in the world, “What’s your songwriting process like?” and they would all say the same thing: You sit around and wrack your brain until you come up with an idea that you like. Whether you’re playing a piano, guitar, just singing in your head, writing lyrics, it’s all just the creative process. We’re all the same, right? So the creative process tends to be the same in general for a lot of people. I think the variable is that people have different voodoo and superstitions about how they’re going to conjure up the spirit, so to speak. But in the end, man, you’re just kind of pounding out to find a good idea.
Songfacts: What do you remember about the writing and recording of the song Madalaine?
Kip Winger: Have you ever heard the Winger Demo Anthology?
Songfacts: No, I haven’t.
Kip Winger: The Demo Anthology is the demos of all those songs, which shows you the original songs, which, when you hear the album there’s really not much different about it. But Madalaine was one where it was much slower. It was a lot slower, actually.
So, we wrote that song and it was kind of slow, and then when we went in the studio, one of the suggestions that Beau Hill made was to speed up that song. So when we sped it up, it came to life.
That was the first song that Reb and I wrote where people around us were, like, “Wow, this is a single.” And I was thinking, “This is a single? What’s a single?” I totally didn’t get it. So I have to say I’ve been very naïve in my career. I’m kind of a late bloomer when it comes to understanding the function of marketing and all that kind of stuff. I just did the music and then all the other shit kind of came alongside of it, which wasn’t always to my benefit.
But that song was real slow, we sped it up, it came to life. I think it’s one of our cooler songs. It’s still a chick song, but it’s got a cool riff that Reb wrote and still rocks. But it’s very cocky.
KISS star Gene Simmons says he’s proud to be among the One Percent of the world’s richest people – and insists everyone else owes him a debt of gratitude.
The bassist believes the world would descend into “chaos” if it wasn’t for him and fellow millionaires.
Simmons tells UTSanDiego.com, “The one percent pays 80 percent of all taxes. 50 percent of the population of the US pays no taxes. The one percent provides all the jobs for everybody else. If the one percent didn’t exist there would be chaos and the economy would drop dead.”
He adds, “Try being nice to rich people. I don’t remember the last poor person who gave me a job.”
Describing his 30 years of extreme financial security as “fantastic” he continues: “You know how I spell ‘shameless?’ P-r-o-u-d.”
He explains, “People often confuse my pride and self-confidence with arrogance. I’m like an animal in the jungle that pisses on the ground and doesn’t ask permission. That’s full disclosure before the facts – others hold their opinions to themselves and never say who they are. You will always know who I am. You don’t have to like it.”
KISS recently announced, KISS Rocks Vegasresidency, starting November 5th at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Las Vegas. The band is currently on tour with Def Leppard.
Overkill have debuted another all new music video for their newest single Bitter Pill exclusively via Decibel Magazine today. Directed by long time collaborator Kevin J. Custer, the video is the fourth time the veteran director has directed an Overkill video including Armorist, which can be viewed here.
Watch Bitter Pill below.
Ooverkill will release their seventeenth LP White Devil Armory on July 22nd trhough eOne Music in North America, and July 18th overseas via Nuclear Blast. The effort is the follow up to the critically acclaimed The Electric Age released in 2012.
The band has quite a bit of touring lined up with a highlighted performance scheduled at Heavy Montreal Festival on August 9th. After that the band will embark on a U.S. tour, view all dates here. Tickets are on sale now.
This year’s White Devil Armory is as vital, powerful, aggressive and melodic as any of the albums in Overkill’s ridiculously impressive back catalog, which stretches over 16 slabs of genre defining and redefining molten metal. The crunch is unmistakable. The voice is irreplaceable. Get less than a minute into White Devil Armory and it’s clear it’s Overkill. No pretense, no musical red herrings. This is tried and true, always trusted thrash metal. Pre-order on iTunes here.
White Devil Armory track listing:
1. XDM
2. Armorist
3. Down To The Bone
4. PIG
5. Bitter Pill
6. Where There’s Smoke
7. Freedom Rings
8. Another Day To Die
9. King Of The Rat Bastards
10. It’s All Yours
11. In The Name
