NEWS

By Mitch Lafon

BUCKCHERRY hit the ground running a few years back with their hit single ‘Lit Up’, but even quicker than that they disappeared from the scene. Fortunately for music lovers, the band has decided that they weren’t quite ready to pack it in. In April, they release their third and possibly best album to date entitled Fifteen.

BW&BK caught up with lead singer Josh Todd to get his thoughts on the album, the band and their future.

BW&BK: The new album, Fifteen, is simply brilliant. You got a little bit of everything on there classic AEROSMITH, BLACK CROWES...

Josh Todd: “Oh, cool. Thank you so much.”

BW&BK: Buckcherry is basically two guys from the original line-up...

JT: “Well, it’s Keith (Nelson – guitars) and I, but we were always the core of Buckcherry. We wrote the majority of all the music and we were the guys that put the band together. Three of the guys quit after the Time Bomb tour and we tried to keep it together at that time, but it was really difficult. We had been through a very disappointing record cycle because we loved our record and we worked very hard to get it off the ground. A lot of things happen with every avenue of our professional life – our management, our record company and internally with our band. It was tough and it was hard to recover...”

BW&BK: It must be tough when your record company (Dreamworks) just vanishes...

JT: “Yeah and your A&R guy.”

BW&BK: How does this album differ from your recent solo effort? How is this Buckcherry and your solo album wasn’t?

JT: “The solo album was just more modern and heavier with different tunings and stuff. I like that kind of music and it was fun for me, but I’ve always wanted to be in one band for my whole career and have a catalogue of music. That was always my dream and my goal. Buckcherry was Keith and I’s baby. We’re very passionate about it and it was very heartbreaking... I just really wanted to stay active you know? I wanted to be in a band and it wasn’t happening with Buckcherry at the time. So, I had to go out and stay creative.”

BW&BK: Is the solo thing over?

JT: “Completely over. Completely over.”

BW&BK: The new guys - Stevie D. (guitar), Xavier Muriel (drums) and Jimmy Ashhurst (bass) – are they here to stay? Do you want to make this “the band” or is it still going to be just you and Keith?

JT: “No, we always wanted a band. The originals guys’ hearts just weren’t into being into Buckcherry so they had to leave. Keith and I were always there – although we did take a hiatus from ourselves. We were having a very hard time finding band members that wanted to be in the band for the right reasons. We tried a lot of people out. We wrote about thirty songs together in about a seven month period and we were trying out guys along the way... just nobody was working out. Everybody just wanted a paycheck and thought we had lots of money and we didn’t. So, nobody wanted to be in the band for the right reasons. It was the right time to take a break and Keith and I were exhausted.”

BW&BK: How is it with the “new guys”? Judging from the album it’s great, but are you looking forward to playing live with these guys?

JT: “ The cool thing about these guys is that they are friends of ours. The guitar player, Stevie, I’ve known for almost 17 years. We were roommates back in the day and I’ve always wanted to be in a band with him, but the timing was never right. Keith really dug him, so that was really important. He’s a great guy to be around and the other two guys, Xavier and Jimmy, Keith knew really well and had a friendship and they just happen to all be great players. They love rock ‘n roll and they love Buckcherry. Honestly, we had one rehearsal and I said after ‘we had a lot of fun and if you guys want to be in Buckcherry show up here tomorrow at 3PM.’ Everybody showed up and that was it. That’s how it came together. Then we just started working really hard.”

BW&BK: You had no timelines for this album. You just vowed to lock yourself away until you came out with the album you wanted. How long did it take to record? How long did it take to get the songs together? And did you get the album you wanted?

JT: “Definitely. You tell me. I think we got the record we wanted and I think it’s our best record to date. We started writing early last year and I don’t know how long the writing process was because we had some songs from prior to Keith and I splitting up. There was a lot of material and then we wrote a lot of songs as a band. I think ‘Crazy Bitch’ is the only song from the older material, but I’m not sure. We wrote about 30 songs together which is about how much we write for every record. We were getting to the 30th song and we knew we pretty much had it. Keith and I took a couple of good songs, but weren’t great songs over to Marti Fredrickson (who’s written with Aerosmith). Both ‘Next To You’ and ‘Sorry’ we had written and he just knew how... we screwed with the arrangements, added a pre-chorus and a different melody here and there. It made the songs just pop. I’m so glad we did that. It was so much fun working with him. It made the record that much better.”

BW&BK: Do you want to work with more outside writers...

JT: “We’re really confident with our songwriting, but I think we want to write more with Marti in the future because he really understands who we are and he’s a rock ‘n roll guy. We tried writing with other people and I don’t want to mention any names, but we tried some of those ‘songwriter people’ and nothing jived, but when we met Marti – it was just really easy and he totally got it. I don’t know if it’s because he’s worked with the Stones and Aerosmith... I don’t know; it just worked. He’s a real rock guy and he’s really good at what he does.”

BW&BK: ‘Crazy Bitch’ is getting a lot of satellite radio airplay, but are you concerned about ‘regular’ radio because of the lyrical content?

JT: “We were concerned until we realized how well we did at regular radio with ‘Lit Up’ back in the day. So, we were like ‘let’s go for it.’ ‘Crazy Bitch’ was just going to be a street track, but radio is picking it up without us even asking them.”

BW&BK: Of course, they’ll have to edit it...

JT: “We already did an edited version and it sucks, but so did ‘Lit Up’ and it did great.”

BW&BK: On your solo tour this summer with TESLA, you skipped playing ‘Lit Up’ (at least at the show I saw in Clifton Park, NY).

JT: “We did a heavier version of it on the solo tour. It was cool and it was fun, but it just didn’t feel right and I wanted to play the music we had done as a band together.”

BW&BK: So, it was not like NIRVANA never wanting to play ‘Teen Spirit’ live?

JT: “No way! We did ‘Lit Up’ for awhile.”

BW&BK: So when fans come and see you now – there’s no problems it’ll be in there?

JT: “No, no – there’s no problems. We do ‘Lit Up’ every night. We do all the hit songs... all the greatest songs from all three records.”

BW&BK: What are the touring plans?

JT: “Well, we went to Japan twice to set up this record. The record is out in Japan. We did our own tour in Japan and then we went back and did the entire MOTLEY CRUE tour over there.”

BW&BK: What about North America?

JT: “We just played all of California. We did the whole west coast ‘residency run’ – every Wednesday at the Whisky, Long Beach, San Diego and the Viper Room on New Year’s (which was a crazy Buckcherry show). People were going nuts and it was one of those nights where the energy mixed with the band was... perfect! Two people were even fucking on top of our merch boxes during the show which we thought was so funny. It was the quintessential Buckcherry show. Now, we’re getting ready to do a northwest up into Canada tour – Seattle over to Michigan and then up into Canada. Then we take a little break and then back on the road ‘cause the record comes out April 11th.

BW&BK: Did you catch the vibe you wanted with this record?

JT: “We don’t really think about what we’re going to sound like. We just really enjoy rock ‘n roll and we don’t like a lot of the bells and whistles like samples and outside noise. We like records that have a lot of space in them. That’s what Buckcherry is. It’s pretty raw. We recorded the record in 15 days and we tracked it in 15 days. When you hear a Buckcherry record then go to a show – well that’s what you’re going to hear. You’re going to hear the record done live well. You’re not going to be disappointed.”

BW&BK: It’s really important for you to be a live band...

JT: “Yeah! I can’t tell you that I sing on key every time I sing live, but the majority of the time I do.”

BW&BK: That’s over rated anyways. It’s part of the excitement of a live show – to have the rawness and the mistakes. At least, you know you’re at a live show...

JT: “Definitely.”

BW&BK: What label on you on in North America?

JT: “Universal in Canada and ADA in the US.”

BW&BK: Are you surprised that there’s an excitement for Buckcherry again? That Universal Japan and Universal Canada are there for you and you’re not relegated to a D list label? Are you happy to be back on top?

JT: “ On top? We’ve got to get there. Buckcherry never got to the top. We never got to compete with bands I know we can compete with in the upper echelons of rock music. There’s not a whole lot of rock music going on anymore. Buckcherry was always riding just underneath the surface of huge commercial success... I think because of our live shows and just how hard we work and we have a lot of great fans. That’s what kept us afloat. So, yeah – I’m surprised and happy. The fact that Keith & I split up for awhile has helped us. Absence makes the heart grow fonder and we always had a great relationship, but a lot of things got fucked up and we made a great record because of it and we’ve got a great band and people want to hear the record.”

BW&BK: Any last words?

JT: “I just want everybody to go to our website www.buckcherry.com and check it out, sign up on our mailing list... we’ve got a Buckcherry radio thing and you can listen to all of the songs. It’s got a chat board, merch... everything you need and I just encourage everybody to go there and get involved.”