AG: How is the tour going?
BK: Okay, yeah. It’s great to, you know, it’s a long way from home but it’s great to play for the fans. They’re very passionate about it and I know it’s truth that some are to see the songs that they, you know, definitely are fond of, that Kiss hasn’t really approached much lately. So, it’s really good and a perfect opportunity for me to get them to hear my new stuff and support that because I’m not with a label right now. I’m just doing it independently and that works very well for me when I can get out there and play and they buy up heaps of them.
AG: Sure. I didn’t see it but the Kiss Symphony show that was in Melbourne (Feb 03) was on Foxtel last night, I’m told.
BK: Yeah, pay per view, yeah.
AG: Did you catch it?
BK: No, no. I saw just little promo clips of it at a Kiss convention a few weeks ago in New York, you know. But, ah, I have some friends that are from Melbourne, so I obviously heard, you know, they were there, you know, their opinions. But, I know the press liked it, whatever, you know and the fans will do what they want with it.
AG: They didn’t have Ace though. I don’t know what the story was there.
BK: I mean, I don’t get what…I understand Ace maybe not enjoying that at times the band is still so controlled by Gene and Paul. But, I don’t understand the alternative really and I’m sure he’s working on a solo record. But, there is something very odd about that and they’ve been dysfunctional from the start anyway, so…
AG: Yeah, I was having a look at Gene’s autobiography. He was essentially talking about Ace being unrepentant.
BK: Yeah, I remember somebody emailing me. They wrote Gene about, um, ‘why don’t you include Bruce more in your book?’ and he said ‘Bruce is a total professional ad he always showed up at the job’. In other words there’s always a story for the guy who’s a problem, you know the bad child gets all the attention right? So, there is a lot to say about Ace when what’s controversial to say about me except that I played really well and then in the end they just went, well, what’s going to make them money anyway?
AG: Oh, for sure, yeah.
BK: I know that and they know that. I live with that and accept it because it’s a business for them. It’s not about, you know, ah, purely the music and that’s going to force that decision. They’ll probably never take off the make-up because people feel the value of the band as the comic book characters or whatever you want to call them is what people want. I don’t completely believe it although I think the general masses who aren’t fanatics understand Kiss more from a make-up point of view.
AG: That’s what started the ball rolling for the ‘farewell’ tour wasn’t it? The Kiss conventions and that kind of pushed you out of a job too. (laughs).
BK: Yeah, sure. But, we were already kind of like doing really great stuff. Music changed, you know and still it’s affected everything. That’s why bands, even like Motley Crue just couldn’t do what they used to do. Once Nirvana and the grunge thing took over the rock bands looked a little silly and Kiss transcends that to a degree. But, there we go doing ‘Revenge’ [1992], a terrific record and still couldn’t break out of that, ‘alright, well we went gold’ okay. That’s actually fabulous but it was a better record than that, you know what I mean?
AG: But then ‘Carnival of Souls’…[1996]
BK: Yeah and that one, well that one got totally screwed because of the fact that, you know, that’s almost like ‘The Elder’ [1982] already. But you know, it was put out so much later on.
AG: Except that it was a lot better. (laughs) [referring to the fact that ‘The Elder’ was atrocious]
BK: Yeah but you get what I’m saying that, you know, some people hate it because they were going crazy about the fact that, well, Kiss is back in make-up and they’re hearing all the old songs and ‘Carnival of Souls’ is light years away from that in stylistic and musical ability than a ‘Strutter’, you know, played by the original guys. I remembered Ace and Peter; they didn’t even want that record to come out. But, you know, the label paid for it so it came down to, ‘okay, well give us the money back or we’re putting the record out’. They own the product once it’s handed in so, hmm.
AG: Well let’s talk about you. This new album, ‘Transformer’, do you feel it follow in the footsteps of your last solo record, ‘Audio Dog’?
BK: Well, in a way yes. In a way no, I mean, it’s certainly still, it’s a hundred percent me obviously, except for drums. I wrote all the material this time. In some ways it’s a little poppier and in some ways it’s not quite as… Ah, the first album, lyrically I talked about a lot of issues I didn’t feel too optimistic all the time. This one has a little sarcasm but ah, there was some real point of views about relationships and love that seemed a little more sweet. A song like ‘Crazy’ and ‘You’re So Beautiful To Me’ and stuff like that. So I explored a little bit of that because that’s how I felt last year. I was in love for a while, I was mistrusting of it, those lyrics are there too. But that was there where ‘Audio Dog’ I was still trying to find, ‘Oh My God, I’m doing a solo record, what do I do?’. I had a fan last night who has both now and they said I don’t which one I like better and I said that kind of sounds like the Union thing. You know, Union put out ‘The Blue Room’ and the debut record and I know that half of the people that are Union fans prefer or think ‘The Blue Room’ is a better record and half of them think…
It’s really just about fifty-fifty and I think it might happen with this, [‘Transformer’] you know. As long as they enjoy it and I’ve gotten so many positive comments on ‘Audio Dog’ and now they’re all coming in the same for ‘Transformer’. Although, the people who are capable of being a critic, you know, ‘cos they understand music or they can express it did say, ‘I love this the same, but it is different’, you see what I‘m saying? They are saying it is different and it is; a little bit sonically. I definitely sing better on it, not that I hated my voice; I just wasn’t that familiar with it yet.
AG: Yeah, when you toured last time [Feb 2002] to Australia, the Melbourne gig was the first time you’d sung.
BK: Well, in Union I got to do ‘Walk Alone’, okay, so I used to do that.
AG: Sorry, as a solo artist.
BK: Yeah, it was the first time I was a headliner to be honest with you. That gig in Melbourne was the first time and we only did two shows. This time we’re doing four and I did go late last year to Europe. I only did four or five shows in Switzerland which I’ll probably go back and do except spread out a little bit. Do maybe a Germany date and maybe ah, some Italy dates ‘cos there’s interest in me doing that. I have a bunch of guys there that learn my stuff much like the band Stand did here.
AG: It’s hug in Germany and Italy, ah…
BK: They still like the rock stuff.
AG: …and Greece too.
BK: Hard rock stuff yeah. People always ask, ‘will you do this in America?’ There’s some areas of America I could probably do okay. I’m so busy with Grand Funk there, it’s not that attractive to me to also tour in America that way. Do you see to be an international artist is; I’m in the paper here where if I do a date in Cleveland and even if I do well at a club, I’m not really necessarily going to be in the paper. It’s just not the same. It’s sad to say it but, you know, that’s the way I see it.
AG: It’s not a reflection on you, it’s a reflection on the industry. They’re promoting what they want to sell.
BK: Yeah, exactly and usually it’s more like what the big labels are behind and what’s on MTV.
AG: So, what do you think of new music at the moment? Does it do anything for you?
BK: I mean, there isn’t a whole lot that moves me out there. Some of the stuff I do like, um, you know, reminds me of other things. But, you know, I can’t rave about too many people. But, I have wide tastes so I do like Norah Jones I also like John Mayer. I picked him way before he won a Grammy. I like, even, Pete Yorn, but I have an acoustic songwriter side of me that I enjoy ‘cos I even like Simon and Garfunkel, if you know what I’m saying. Although Hendrix is my hero or the Beatles or Led Zeppelin.
But, there’s not a whole lot of guitar music out there. There’s not a lot of guitar heroes out there or guitar music really. Still, a guitar solo is like….
AG: Is it going to stay that way do you think?
BK: I don’t know, it really is…some new bands might creep it in more and more. Audioslave is doing pretty well, although he’s a great guitar player, that guy [Tom Morello]. But, that’s a little different kind of guitar playing too. I don’t know. I know when I do the Grand Funk show, which is, you know, we gear it towards a family crowd and it’s a classic rock show and there’s a lot of great hits. But, I get to play the role of wild lead guitar player and I’m ripping it up. I do the ‘Star Spangled Banner’, you know, like a Hendrix at Woodstock and there’s families out there. The father will understand it and go like, ‘right on’, the wife will too and the daughter or the son, they’re like, ‘that’s cool’, you know what I mean. Although it isn’t the rapper, they get it.
AG: Funny you should say that, I was looking at a DVD of ‘Blue Oyster Cult’ and Buck’s still got the
[riffage] going on…
BK: Oh yeah, he sounds great. We’ve done quite a few shows with them actually, Grand Funk and they’re very good. Actually they opened for us, which is very nice, but, ah, they’re good, you know. Actually, you know what’s ironic is this whole classic rock thing. I used to think at first, ‘well, alright’. I’m in a band even older that Kiss by a few years but it’s a great gig actually and the guys are very professional and the people really respond well to me being there. Now, Heart hired Mike Inez, who used to play with Ozzy and Alice in Chains and Gilbey Clarke, who is a friend of mine in LA, you know, from Guns’n’ Roses. I thought that was kind of interesting ‘cos those are very edgy guys, you know what I mean. Tattoos, you know and everything and now they’re playing now in Heart because the truth is, unless you’re reforming Guns’n’Roses, there’s not much else…you know what are you going to do out there?
AG: Blame Axl. (laughs)
BK: Yeah, he’s out of his mind, Axl.
AG: To further that irony, all those contacts, everyone seems to know everyone in LA. So whatever happens…
BK: Yeah, oh yeah I know, you hear about it. Now Jon [Corabi], I just spoke to him last week. I hadn’t spoken to him since he stopped working with Nikki [Sixx]. But we were just chatting. He didn’t know I was in Australia. He left me a message, so I rang him up, I put my friend on the phone that he knew, he kid of freaked, you know, ‘what are you doing there?’. But he asked me, ‘how did you do your record, what did that cost?’ because I’ve paid for my solo records which is the best thing way to control it and the best way to, ah… It doesn’t lend for it to get it in the most places necessarily but certainly I don’t need to deal with anybody telling me what they want and then I can start making, once I’ve recouped, you know, the money’s mine and I’m controlling my product. I enjoy that and I’m not totally a control freak but, um, being independent, you see a lot of major artists actually who are so sick of the labels. I’m not the age group that they want anyway, as you know, but I know my market and hopefully all my fans, they’ve been supportive. I’m really not even tailoring a record for them. I’m just doing what I feel comfortable with, you know.
AG: I understand what you’re saying The Screaming Jets shirt I’ve got on; they got sick of labels and thought that if they weren’t getting support for a good album, they’ll go and do it themselves.
BK: Well, yeah, the labels, they’ve kind of eaten themselves and a lot of my friends that have had industry jobs; there’s all these let offs, you know, firings. I think that digital copying is a problem to a certain extent. I know my fans, they want to hold my CD and that’s why I made the effort to make it a quality product, not look like something I burned on my CD-R. Like what I gave you (laughs).
AG: Ha, ha, that’s cool.
BK: That’s my personal practice copy you know. Just when I first mastered it I made some copies, that’s all. That’s why it says mastered copy as opposed to the first one. It’s exactly what the disc is, you know.
AG: Well, we should talk about gear. Have you got the signature ESP still happening?
BK: No, I did. It’s funny, I developed this thing that kind of looked like an SG. It was a cross between a BC Rich Eagle, which I have quite a few of, and an SG, which was a guitar I was always fond of. I love the Gibson line, all the Gibsons you know, really. I was more, I mean, I love Fender and you can’t beat these classic designs of the Fenders and the Gibsons. That’s why all these re-issues, even if they make them cheaper, like through Epiphone or whoever, or Mexican Strats, there’s nothing more classic than a Strat style or a Gibson style. Then later on you get into some the metal shapes and stuff and all. But my signature model came out right when I wasn’t in Kiss anymore which was not the plan (laughs). Then there was actually a problem with some the models that ESP was doing that Gibson starting barking, if you know what I mean. So, I had no problem….
AG: You sold them or something similar didn’t you?
BK: Well what happened was that whatever remaining stock at that point, yeah. I probably only have about eight left, I mean, there wasn’t a tonne, ‘cos they made a limited run. The signature models they don’t mass-produce of course. But, yeah I just sell them myself so if people contact me on the internet…But it’s kind of funny doing that but I get off on that because they’re getting it directly from me. Now, I haven’t thought about dong another one really now they have a line, their LTD line, which is actually made in Korea. But, their LTD Deluxe is great stuff you know and I’ve been gigging with a few of the different models. So, I’m very happy with them.
AG: So are you just using that. Are you using your ESP Strat as well?
BK: Well, this tour, for example, I brought an older Vintage Plus ESP Strat with a Floyd Rose and all. The spare is one of these Horizons, which is sort of like some of the models I used to use with Kiss.
AG: I remember talking to you last time, you said you use JB Duncans [Jeff Beck Seymour Duncan pickups]. Is that still in it?
BK: Yeah, I think the one I have out right now might have a Custom in it. I’m not positive, I’d have to pull it and look. But, yeah, either the JB and a ’59 usually works great in the neck if it’s a two-humbucker kind of guitar. Yeah, Duncans I find are really effective for me. No problems.
AG: Straight in or through a rack?
BK: No, I have some pedals. My pedal board is pretty simple. For live I’ll use an analogue delay. I like the Boss DM2, which they don’t make anymore. But there’s other companies that make stuff like that. This company, Maxim, they gave me one to check out, which I didn’t yet, but I know it’s going to work. You know, I like a lot of different chorus pedals. I usually find this cheap pawnshop, Ibanez this or Washburn that, you know. As long as it has a rich chorus I’m fine. Wah wah pedal, Echo-Vox, I have an old Italian vox that sounds great. The overdrive, the important thing is just, especially if you’re using a 900 series Marshall, I like the SD-1 [Boss] or an Ibanez TS-9. So I have the SD-1 out with me right now.
AG: So, that whole rack thing, the Bradshaw racks is gone?
BK: Oh I hated that, I never did any of that. Yeah, I hope so but I never did any of that anyway and with Kiss, since I had to run around and I couldn’t step on pedals, what I’d have was my teach would crank pre-amp on the song where I rally needed that extra gain. There wasn’t even a pedal. For ‘Star Spangled Banner’ on Alive III, that was an actual Uni-vibe that we played in only during the encore.
So, he’s just putting it on for me so I don’t have to touch the pedal. For wah wah sounds back then on Alive III, there was a company, ah, Chandler used to market this thing called a Tonex and it was a tone pot [potentiometer – resistive variable switch] and you pull it out [snap up the volume knob say] and then you can notch it where you want it. So, I’d find like that Schenker [UFO/MSG guitarist Michael Schenker] you know, whatever and that would be my wah tone.
AG: That’s alright.
BK: Yeah, it worked.
AG: I guess for most big bands there is virtually nothing on stage so all the amps are underneath or to the side.
BK: Yeah exactly.
AG: That must make it hard to tweak or maintain your sound?
BK: Yeah well, I know that some bands, I remember I think, Slash, he needed to wah wah stuff so there was on both sides of the stage, a hook up or spot were he could go and it was there, it was wireless and then he could play it. But otherwise he was completely free, you know. With Kiss, it wasn’t that important I didn’t feel and I wanted the mobility so that was the way to do it.
AG: Would you say most would have been there for the show, not for the tone?
BK: In a way yeah.
AG: Not like an Eric Johnson gig where the audience listens to the batteries (laughs).
BK: Well, I know. But see the difference is, see I gave some to my friends, I burned a copy of my CD ‘cos I wanted them to check it out before I had the real copies in my hand. They would enjoy it and then when I hand them, I‘d say, ‘well, here’s the finished product’, they’d be like, ‘Whoa, now the songs, it all comes together for me now Bruce’, and I’m like, ‘Huh?’. You know what I mean, packaging and the show of it is very important, it is.
AG: Did you master ‘Transformer’ yourself?
BK: Oh I used a guy who actually mastered some of the Kiss albums too. But I funded it myself, shall we say and produced it. I did have Curt Coumo, who worked with me with ‘Audio Dog’ and ‘Carnival of Souls’ and who has co-written with me on ‘Psycho Circus’, er, co-produced. This one, ‘Transformer’ this is more me only because I was abler to write all the songs myself. The last time I would have some trouble with some lyrics ‘cos I wasn’t always used to writing lyrics and now it’s, I don’t why but last year was just very easy for me to [write lyrics]. I had a lot of down time on planes and everything in traveling with Grand Funk and I was going through a lot of emotional things that I just figured out how to do it. It’s shaped from the heart, a lot of people going, ‘you’re not writing about you, that’s me, that’s my relationship in this song’, you know what I mean? It’s kind of funny because I know I’ve done my job when that happens because people really respond to lyrics that they can relate to.
AG: Yeah, I fully understand that. Have you found it difficult getting into the front man role after being so long with Paul Stanley?
BK: It is a challenge and I think I say it almost after every night after I sang and I’m playing guitar and you know, the guitar playing is important, it’s not like, ‘okay, I’ll just let my other guitar player deal with the parts. You know, singing and playing and I go, like, ‘man, that’s hard’, I don’t know how these people did it and you know Paul Stanley is a showman. I mean, he’s a great, great singer but he’s, you know, guitar is not his strength and he’s really, it’s just like a prop up there. Gene is really playing bass and singing though and he’s playing some interesting lines when he’s jumping around and playing. I’ve got to give him a lot of credit. You’ve got people like Paul McCartney who’ll just sing their ass off and play the bass or the guitar or the piano. It’s just unbelievable.
AG: I find it really hard to co-ordinate that.
BK: I know. It’s hard but I learned to do it. It’s kind of like jumping in the pool and you know you’re got to get wet so you may as well just jump right in.
AG: What sort of guitars did you use on the album? Is it the same as you’re using live?
BK: No, I mean, I usually don’t use my live stuff in the studio because I have some stuff that is real dear to me that I just think…ah, like I have an old Les Paul, it was converted, just like a ’59 Les Paul even though it’s a ’53 or a ’54. The thing sounds great and it was refinished by Gibson but its got PAFs [patent applied for] in it now. Originally it would have had soap bars. That guitar has been in the family a long time actually. My brother, he originally owned it and then he didn’t want it so I said,’you ain’t selling that, I’m buying it from you’. He got that…it’s even on Paul’s [Stanley] solo record for example.
It’s even on Alive II, the studio tracks, so it’s been around that long, that guitar, in the Kulick family. So, that’s probably one that I really did use quite a bit. I have a favourite ESP or two, there’s a new Viper actually that I gig with that I use, ah, I was surprised. I used it for one demo, I only did one demo for this album and it was ‘cos I thought the song was going to go to this girl singer that my keyboard player friend in Grand Funk was working with and in the end, she changed her direction so, like ‘well, I’m finishing my song and I’m going to do it’ and that’s that song ‘Crazy’ that people love, you know, that’s track four on ‘Transformer’. So, I did the solo, I remember, with this Viper so of course, I used it. There’s the ESP that I’m holding on the back of ‘Crazy Nights’ [Kiss]; I pulled that out for a solo on ‘Inn of the Mountain Gods’. My signature model made quite a few appearances. It starts off the record with ‘Jump The Shark’.
AG: At least you’re playing this stuff, not storing it away.
BK: Well, I’ll bring twenty and I’ll wind up using only really twelve, you know. I might look at the others or try it for part and I’m going, ‘nah’. I have an old Les Paul Junior with a humbucker in it, you‘ve seen in some of the Kiss tour books, I used to tour with [it]. That’s on quite a bit of solos. It’s just got an unbelievable tone. It’s just ‘cos it’s that old mahogany and the humbuckers just in it. I don’t know what it is, I think it’s just a T-top, which is after PAF, but it just screams. That guitar really, the song that Corabi sang [on ‘Transformer’], that’s the solo on that, is that Junior.
AG: Do you ever find in the studio that you can get an excellent sound out of a little tin pot amp?
BK: I have on occasion. Not on this album but I have recorded through even like a little Champ at times, you know and that can work. But mostly, on the cover [Transformer] has a TSL 2000 on it, in a one hundred, you know, the hundred watt three channel one. I use that quite a bit and then I have two, ah, one of the earliest [Marshall] 900 series that they made, they gave me and I used to use it with Kiss. I use that a lot and then another more recent 900 series.
AG: Is it fair to say that you were responsible for the 900 series?
BK: No, it’s just that…I don’t want to completely say that but I used to …they knew that a lot of people were modifying amps, the ‘70s amps. The 800 series wasn’t bad but they didn’t, ah, not quite enough crunch if you really wanted to break into a lead. Some of them sound good. But what they did was they got really pissed off at people modifying Marshalls and that’s where the 900 series started from.
AG: The thing about crunch is some of the latter amps have so much it’s almost too much. The 800 is not enough. So I s’pose you’re generally gigging with the 900?
AG: Yeah, I know what you’re saying. Well, I request more the 900s ‘cos I’m just out of habit used to putting my SD-1 {boss pedal] when I want to do the solo or just get nasty. Now I also gig with 2000 series and like I said, one of those appeared on the CD. But, then I’m never quite sure. I know the triple lead is really cool ‘cos I leave the regular channel…First of all it has a great clean sound, probably the best Marshall clean sound that they’ve ever done. Then the second channel is good, like a 900 head, I could say and then for the lead I can go to the third channel and not use the overdrive. But that’s unusual for me so that’s why I don’t always favour it.
AG: Having the power amp and pre-amp, do you ever separate the heads and just use there pre-amp on one head and the power amp on the other?
BK: No, I just like, if you’ve got a good sounding head and ah, like last night [Brisbane] we had a hired backline. The other three gigs, Marshall actually loaned me a brand new 900 head and cabinet and it sounded great. You don’t have to break them in if they’re working right, you know. Although I’ve got to admit, we had some backup rented ones, ‘cos you’ve got to have a spare and two of the three were just awful, you know what I mean, I was like, I’m really glad the A amp didn’t go down because I wouldn’t want to play through that, you know.
AG: Can you tell what’s wrong with the pre-amp or power amp tubes?
BK: I can’t tell but tubes are tricky and it’s obvious if a guy is renting something I would think that the hiring place would plug it in afterwards and make sure it sounds like something and they probably don’t I know. I was very upset about that, I’m going let the Marshall distributor know, but it’s not something they can control.
AG: No, I guess not. Halfway through [a gig] you could hear this microphonic noise of a tube falling over and then you’re stuffed.
BK: Yeah, I know right away, That’s the great thing though, Marshalls are very consistent besides the fact that I’m addicted to that smell, you know, it’s something in the glue and the tolex. Jim Marshall told me that’s what that smell is, I’m like, ‘ahh, I love it’, you know, it’s just, it’s like incense of Hendrix, you what I mean, to me, that’s what it seems like.
AG: Did that ever happen to you in Kiss? Did you ever get any amps that just packed out?
BK: No, I’ve had some amps blow up on me but not with Kiss. We generally made sure everything was serviced properly and there’d be a spare there anyway. So, you’d never not get through it, you know. We’ve had venues have a complete power failure and like, ‘bye, catch you at the end of the tour’, you know and had to cancel the gig. It happens.
AG: What do you do?
BK: Um, goodbye and come back three months from now, yeah. If the venue can’t handle the power and there’s a power failure. It happened once.
AG: If the promoter can handle it…
BK: I’m sure that was not a fun issue for the guy.
AG: Just as an aside, I have to ask, Gene seems pretty militant about not drinking. Is that right? He says he never ever drinks.
BK: Um, he’s not into in any way having a drink or doing any kind of drug.
AG: I’m not saying it’s a problem. But in the industry it’s almost impossible to [avoid].
BK: I very rarely social drink. Paul too, I mean I’ve seen occasionally Paul drink but I mean, I think it’s a control issue for him.
AG: I’m just curious in terms of how much of that biography you can believe and how much is not…same with the Motley Crue one.
BK: Um, you know, I think the Motley Crue one is very real. Gene, I think, told his story according to how Gene views himself, you know. So, obviously I’ve sat and chatted with him and heard him interact with many people through my relationship with him and you know, he’s one that always wants to get his point across. It’s the world according to Gene, so, that’s the way the book is too.
AG: I wasn’t trying to focus back on Kiss but you’re obviously an extremely accomplished player…
BK: Thank you.
AG: ..yet at the same time the Kiss thing, is that a burden for you?
BK: Well in a sense that in some ways Kiss is almost like the ultimate garage band, you know what I’m saying, that’s how they started out. But they obviously wanted to aspire, when I joined in ’84, the music scene was, you know, Van Halen and Warren DeMartini in Ratt and ah, you know, even Mick Mars, you know, I think he was a solid enough player. That, he’s playing some licks there. But, you know what I’m saying and those were the big bands then and ah, you’ve got guys like, in Winger, Reb Beach, ripping a lot of riffs [1988]. So they wanted me to aspire. that’s what they felt, the competition with Def Leppard, you know, wasn’t a garage band sound. In fact, you know, you had to be a little more musical and if it wasn’t the band couldn’t do it; the producer made sure the band did it. So, I don’t look at it that way, I think bands that are, I mean the fans that have a bigger sense of the group obviously know. I’ll joke sometimes and say, ‘yes, I was in the more musical Kiss’, you know, the more musical version.
AG: But it’s true.
BK: Well it is, it is and I say it proudly. But it’s just a little poke at the other side of it. But they know that too, you know, they know.
AG: Have you seen those ‘classic album’ DVDs where the albums are taken apart. They get all the artists together and get them in the studio to play the master tapes.
BK: Well, there was one they did on Alive recently. Yeah, in America they did an, ‘ultimate album’, I think, on ‘Alive’. So they talk about how they overdubbed everything. They admitted it. It’s funny.
AG: So, how much of the stuff did you do that they didn’t say?
BK: Well, on occasion I played bass on things and Gene, he was always okay about that. Sometimes Paul didn’t play any guitar on a track, especially if it was a Gene song and Gene liked the way I was interpreting it. Sometimes, like a song like ‘Tears Are falling’, Paul played all the rhythms and the only thing I played was my solo. So it all depends. Very much like the Beatles, the band always kind of swapped the instruments even to the point, I used to hear that, I wasn’t there then but I heard that Eric Carr played bass on ‘I Still Love You’, okay. I don’t why. Maybe he had a better feel than Gene and he wasn’t really an accomplished bass player, Eric. He used to be able to fumble around on it. Paul played on ‘Love Gun’ supposedly. So, it was that kind of a group, you know.
AG: Just how it is.
BK: So obviously they got to use me when it made sense.
AG: In terms of playing and technique, do you force yourself to do odd things or do you like to stay in the bluesy rock feel? Harmonic minor or something?
BK: No, you know what’s challenging is when you do some alternate tunings or…Obviously, look, within rock’n’roll, unless you’re trying to do fusion, you know, you’re limited to a certain degree. But, I think I push it but I want to be tasteful. I’m not trying to like, necessarily break new ground. Actually the last song on ‘Transformer’ is an all acoustic track and I’m playing an eight string octave mandolin, a little dulcimer is in in the ending. There’s a little bit of the regular mandolin in the third song. It’s blended very low but it’s in the choruses a little bit. So in that way I feel a little adventurous, you know.
AG: ..and you recorded that all yourself without any problems?
BK: Well, I had a real engineer for this album, that I hired. But, I kind of knew.. a lot of people didn’t know what it was, you know, especially that octave mandolin.
AG: No, I can understand that because when I transcribe songs sometimes I’ll listen and be thinking, ‘bloody hell, what is that, a twelve string guitar, what tunings?’.
BK: Right, yeah what is he doing? Well when you’re layer it you get away with that kind of stuff and it’s interesting when I jam with people now and I say, ‘okay, learn these songs, we’re going to perform them’ and then I say, ‘what did you think it was?’ and I’m looking and they’re in the wrong position. They’ve got some of the notes right but, ah , you know, help ‘em out and they’re like, ‘oh, ah’.
AG: So say someone plays a note anywhere on a string, do you know which string?
BK: I have a good ear. I’m going to tell you for sure it’s on the G-string instead of the B string. Just a few days ago at rehearsal I remember telling Paul [Drennan], the other guitar player, like, we start ‘Shout It Out Loud’ and I go ‘what are you dong?’. He’s playing the right notes and I’m going, ‘no, it’s on the G-string’ and then all of a sudden he goes, ‘spot on, you know, right’. He heard the difference right away even though you’re playing the same notes, ‘cos I knew where Paul played it, Paul Stanley played it, but I knew that that wasn’t right and that’s an easy thing to just correct. You go with taste with a lot of that stuff and you’ve got to have a good instinct for it that’s all.
AG: The more distortion on it, the harder it is to hear it, so, can you still pick up what you did?
BK: Not always, but you do the best you can, you know.
AG: Just on producing yourself, is that a good thing? I’m not saying it’s a bad idea and obviously in terms of cost it’s great.
BK: Yeah, yeah. I do it less out of cost and more out of the fact that I really do feel like I know what I hear in my head. Now there’s times I’m kind of like, lost, should I go this way or that way and then I’ll some opinions, you know, and I try to surround myself with talented people too.
AG: Oh absolutely. All I’m getting is that when you’re listening to something all the time…
BK: Yes, I know. But, I‘ve learned, um, like most of the time when we did solos and all the finishing touches on the songs, you finish it up but then you look at it fresh in the morning. Then you go like, ‘this is what’s missing’, ‘cos you know, you’re fresh in your mind and then you go in and go like, ‘this is what we’ve got to do, this has got to be changed’ and then you do it and it’s all good. So, I’m proud of everything on there and I do feel that you don’t finish an album; you abandon an album, if you know what I’m saying. But I get, you get the job done.
AG: Just curious and I’ve sort of asked you this before, how comfortable are you with being a front man and a lead guitarist because you’ve got some instrumental songs happening.
BK: Yeah, I do one of them in the show. The first song [on Transformer] actually.
AG: Do you want to go that way, do you know what I mean?
BK: No, I still feel like, when I‘m doing the instrumentals, I’m still a front man in a way. But, yeah, I sing like five songs and it’s a real challenge. I’d never really see myself as…I’d always..not unlike Ace, okay. When he went solo, he always had another guy in the band, it might be someone is playing an instrument, it may not necessarily be a lead singer. But somebody else singing some of the other songs. So, I would continue along those lines ‘cos I know people are going to come to see me mostly for my guitar playing. But I know they all freak when they hear ‘I Walk Alone’ because it was one of the popular songs on ‘Carnival of Souls’ and now they’ve getting familiar with my solo records so they see me actually doing them, which is kind of cool.
AG: Artist like Vai have a core fan base, which is just into shred guitar and so on.
BK: I’m not going for that market and I prefer myself to be broader in the sense of ah, especially in that song ‘Crazy’, that if like a twenty-two year old recorded it and put it out with a label, it could be a hit single. But, it’s not going to be a hit single for me because, you know, the way the business works.
AG: It’s sad isn’t it.
BK: Yeah it is sad. But, that’s the way it is. It’s all youth driven and the money is only gong to go for a very cute, pretty girl or a handsome, like, edgy looking guy or something; kid rather, a ha.
AG: There are people who’ve grown up on say Kiss right, so they’re out there and maybe they’re working jobs. But, they probably have more of a sense of where to spend their income, more responsible.
BK: Yeah, but they might have families too and they may not be able to quite be as passionate. Each generation and I’ve gone through a few now, each generation wants their own music, which is why, let’s say Linkin Park and I’m not saying anything bad about them, that that sold as well as it did a year or so ago or whenever it was, two years ago. Or Creed, you know what I’m saying. I know the Creed guitar player, Mark [Tremonti], he’s a real sweet guy and he’s a fan on mine and I actually like Creed although I know the singer has gotten real full of himself, I hear, or something. But, um, again, they don’t let him, let Mark really do solos in that classic way. But, you know, on Metallica tours, he’s going to be riffing, that guy and he’s not one of my favourite guitarists, you know, what’s his name again?
AG: James Hetfield or..
BK: No, James I like a lot, ah, Kirk Hammett. But he’s going to be riffing, you know that. There’s hardly any new bands that are doing anything like that.
AG: Yeah, I saw Creed about a year or so ago and that was a fantastic show, a really big show. But, there’s not a lot of that. It depends on what you like really, I guess. But his riffage was just meaty, the grunt that he gets out of that PRS.
BK: The sad thing is I think that the fans who really like rock’n’roll still and guitar driven music and all, a lot of them just don’t, um, they like it but there’s a lot of fringe people who just don’t spend the time of the effort to support it, you know and that’s what’s happened. Last night driving through Brisbane we noticed that, you know, all those kind of like, outdoor pubs, with the pick-up thing and the disco and the cafe club thing, they’re packed and the rock club is not going to be packed and it’s a very sad state of affair. They’d rather just be getting drunk and chatting up some female than maybe watching an artist perform, you know or I hear pokies are very popular now too. (smirks)
AG: Oh God, that’s pretty sad, yeah. But, there are some venues that decided, yeah, what do you want loyal people or do you want, well what?
BK: My fans are I’d say ninety percent guys and they’re loyal and they dig guitar playing and they get off on it. Then there’s the girls who are just totally mesmerised. I got an email from this one fan from last night and she’s like, ‘I just love you’, I mean she had her handsome boyfriend with her but she’s just like, ‘I am so in love with you and you are just so talented’. It was just like I was reading this thing and going [hands up]. I don’t even know what to say, I didn’t reply, I just checked it next door at the Internet cafe. I will write her back something like, ‘most of my fans are male so right away your email stands out, but thank you very much’, You know, I mean, it means a lot to me but imagine what N’Sync was like, to be in N’Sync or Backstreet Boys. Here, I don’t even know what to do with the one of the maybe twenty girls that showed up last night ‘cos it was all guys, you know what I mean?
AG: Ask her to hassle triple j to play your music. (laughs)
BK: Alright I’ll tell her that. If you love the record go get it on that radio station, yeah. (laughs)
AG: Okay, well, we’ll leave it at that.
BK: Cool. Alright.