by Alissa Ordabai/www.crushermagazine.com
Sounding both modern and timeless, familiar and original, Bruce Kulick's new record BK3 is on the one hand all about his grasp of the tradition that got the man his gig in KISS, and on the other it brings home the fact that it's Kulick's own unique flair that makes him stand out among legions of other chopsmen of his generation.
Taking him outside of any pre-set formulas, Kulick's originality coupled with his personal artistic history makes the new album both accessible and different - precisely the kind of release you are hoping for when mixing the conventional and the ingenious in just the right doses while putting it all through the prism of your own vision. But then again, this is how all truly great rock veterans deal with things. While being able to recite the all old formulas backwards, Kulick somehow also manages to stay in touch with the initial source of inspiration he first discovered while playing the first A-list band of his career: Meatloaf in the late Seventies.
Kulick himself modestly brings it all down to what he calls "experience", but there is obviously more to his ability than just maturity, judgment, and professionalism. One strongly suspects that the real strength to the new record is in the fact that Kulick never lost touch with that initial sense of awe that music brings, and despite of all his business savvy continues to believe that one becomes a musician to make this world a more beautiful place.
Former bandmate Gene Simmons and Gene's son Nick, as well as old friend John Corabi, all appear on this record, each adding their own distinctive vibe on the tracks they guest on, (Nick sounding at once similar to and different from this father). But it's still Kulick's songwriting and his cold-fire guitar panache that make this record such an killer release. Not to mention the fact that his own singing is nigh-perfect in its flawless phrasing, balance, and nonchalant cool.
A guitar aficionado's prayer of having more instrumental tracks than just one goes unanswered on this release, but the standout "Between the Lines" on which Kulick exchanges blistering fretboard fireworks with guest guitarist Steve Lukather packs in enough punch to make up for the absence of any more such stuff. Songwriting clearly took priority on BK3 making it a collection of rock-solid, perfectly formed tunes - from exemplary LA strut of "I'm the Animal" to cryptic gravity of "Ain't Gonna Die" sung by Simmons.
It may have taken almost 6 years to complete the record, but Kulick is careful to emphasise that if not for touring with his band Grand Funk Railroad, being involved with Rock'n'Roll Fantasy Camp and taking on producer duties in other projects, it would have taken much quicker. A record worth the length of time it took to make, BK3 does the ultimate job -- showing Kulick at his best - in his songwriting as well as his guitar playing, confirming an old whiskey-maker truism that the longer stuff has been in the making, the stronger it hits you.
The way in which his creative process works, the way the new record took shape, as well as his views on things that help musicians sustain their careers became the main themes of our telephone chat during which Kulick shared some humorous, unexpected and at times downright blunt opinions on musicianship, guitar craft and, last but not least, the current state of the music business.
ALISSA ORDABAI: Bruce, thank you for taking time to do this interview with us, we really appreciate your time.
BRUCE KULICK: No problem!
AO: And congratulations on the new record.
BK: Yeah, I mean, I just came back from Australia and when I announced the shows in Australia, I didn't really think at that point, or I didn't have anything in place regarding an actual worldwide record deal. So I needed to explain to my fans who showed up at the gigs. They were thinking they could buy my new record there. But, to be honest, they were extremely supportive of the fact that the reason why it wasn't available yet is the worldwide record deal, and then they were quite excited about that, actually. But it was confusing regarding the release dates.
AO: From an artistic point of view, are you happy with the way this record has turned out?
BK: I am thrilled to the moon. First of all, I've spent a lot of time to make it great. I had a producer friend of mine, Jeremy [Rubolino], who kicked my ass with it. He would push me to make the greatest solo record possible with me, but that would mean that it would take longer and cost more.
My first two solo records I really enjoyed doing, but they were more… The first one was like me jumping in the water and finding out what it's like to be a solo artist. I was really proud of what it was and I started with the material that KISS didn't get to, and that was the approach to that album. And it was still fun and it was a great learning curve.
My second record, ah, I had a whole love relationship thing that blew up in my face, so it was easy to write songs, and I said, "I'm recording it this summer, that's it, done!" And there it was, that was Transformer.
But for this one Jeremy actually contacted me right when I was starting to record Transformer, and I promised him, I said, "Look, when I am ready to do my next solo record, we'll start talking." So that was the top of 2004 when we started writing, and by the time we started recording, like a year and a half later, I realised that we were on something that was a real step up.
I always like to compare my favourite album in KISS, Revenge (although I'm proud of everything I did in the band and there were many highlights through the years) but Revenge was really the pinnacle of the best of KISS, no make-up for sure, with Eric Singer and my involvement. I wanted this record to be as strong as Revenge, and I feel like I've reached that.
I have to say that the album changed course a few times once Gene was willing to do a song, and then he offered his son Nick, and then Steve Lukather came along and jammed with me on my instrumental. It was really incredible how it just snowballed into a much bigger effort than I expected. Because I didn't know I would have all those featured guests that would come in and do such a fine job.
Like I said, when we finished Revenge with KISS, I was 99.9% happy, which is pretty high for me because I'm a perfectionist, and I feel the same way about BK3, so I'm just very excited about this. I can see already the reaction from the people who have gotten to listen to it, and I can't wait for everybody to hear it when it comes out.
AO: Do you reckon there are advantages to the fact that it took so long to make this record, in terms of that it probably allowed you to take a step back from it a few times during the process?
BK: Well, I want to be clear that the reason why it took so long wasn't anything other than scheduling. I'm a full-time member of Grand Funk Railroad. We do between 35 and 50 shows a year, so I'm gone like a third of the year with that. We are traveling, and then I do things for Rock'n'Roll Fantasy Camp, I got to London a few years ago and I jammed with Jack Bruce and we recorded at Abbey Road with the campers.
AO: Amazing.
BK: What a thrill! But that takes up time, you prepare and then you go there for eight days, you know what I mean. So I'm constantly on the go and doing things, and that was a part of it. In fact, Jeremy and I were hired for a couple of projects to produce last year and that took up about 6 weeks of the year because if someone hires you to be in the studio with them, you are committed to working with them. So I think you make a good point in saying that the breaks do get you an opportunity to take a step back and take a look at it, although I think that if I was not so busy otherwise, it wouldn't have taken all that time.
On my website I did actually blog and did photos and little stories on when we were technically in the studio. Of course, the work took more than the 50 days that I reported, because some days you have to edit, some days you have to write the songs, some days it's just mixing and cleaning the files, you know what I mean. The actual time doing the record of sitting down and getting it done was really just only 50 days, but over the course of several years, which was crazy.
AO: Would you say that there was an initial concept behind this album, a common theme or a common thread, or did things happen spontaneously as you went along?
BK: Well… I have to say the theme would be "No compromise". The theme would have to be the best of what I could do and things I couldn't do, for example I would say, "I'm not singing this song, it's not gonna work for me", and we'd try the best person we could find. I always say that the glue on the album is me playing the guitar on all the tracks, no matter who is singing. But the intent of the record was to make the best that we could and not compromise.
There were times when I had to sing a song three times, there were times when we would scrap a solo and start again, there were times where… Although with some of the guest singers we had such opportunity too. Like when Nick [Simmons] sang a song, he sounded great when he first sang it. But we had him back in the studio to do harmony for some of the stuff because he wanted his voice to be doubled, and he said, "You know what, do you mind if I sing it again?" And we said, "No, go for it," and that's actually the performance that's on the record. You see what I mean? And that obviously took longer than just doubling some harmonies and putting some extra parts on it. We had that attitude about making it as good as we could.
AO: That makes me presume that you didn't have any specific singers in mind when you were writing the material?
BK: Correct. I have to be honest in saying that at least John Corabi being such a dear friend of mine, Jeremy and I knew that there was a tune or two that would be very well tailored for John which you have on the EP and which is a killer track ["No Friend of Mine"], and which I think is the best of John.
AO: How difficult was it to approach Gene to sing on this record?
BK: Well, I gotta be honest, I was very nervous. It was Eric Singer and myself going up there probably three years ago for Christmas, and Eric already played drums on one of the songs that I thought Gene would really like. And Eric was absolutely like, "Ask Gene." And I actually asked him right then, and Gene was like, "Sure." And I was like, "Ooh! That's good!" You know what I mean? And then, of course, by the time we got together he offered, "Would you like Nick to sing a song?" So he was very gracious. I think he knew that I was serious about making a great track with him, not to make it like a demo or something. There were real strings on his track, and I got a little bit on "Family Jewels" doing it too, his TV show. Once we knew where the song was going, we really came along quite quickly and did a great job in the studio, and I'm very proud to have Gene on the record.
AO: You have this wonderful ability to adapt to different creative situations, working with different musicians. What do you think is the key to that ability? What qualities do you think a musician needs to have to be able to do that successfully?
BK: Experience really helps with that, no doubt. I think I've learnt through the years that you can wear a lot of hats. I went from playing the guitar with Meatloaf back in the late '70s to being the guitarist in KISS, and my role was actually not being a kind of Ace where they are kind of at now where Tommy does such a great job with that, but the key for me then was that I had to be competitive with the Eddie Van Halens and Ace Frehley, I had one foot in what was considered modern guitar in the '80s and what was considered the classic KISS thing. So I've learnt how to adapt. Same thing with being in Grand Funk. I think experience helps with that, as well as having an open mind.
Even The Fantasy Camp shows me that all the stars that come in have to adapt too. They are not on stage, they are not protected by their publishers, they are who they are, and then they have to walk into a room of campers. Some actually having some talent, but some can't keep a beat, and they gotta perform to that person, do you know what I mean? For Steven Tyler or whatever. Everyone has really blasted those things, by the way, but it just shows that professional musicians know how to blend in with what the situation is. Music is a bit too erratic, the music business, for you not to be flexible at times. But I think having that knack is one of my strengths.
AO: Talking about guitar playing, how many instrumental tracks are there on this record?
BK: Unlike my other two solo records, which had three and four each, or four or five each, this one only has one.
AO: "Between the Lines"?
BK: Right, the one with Steve Lukather. But that one was a late addition, and when Jeremy and I were cutting the first batch of ten songs, there was no instrumental. And then, of course, we were replacing some of those ten after we got the song with Gene. The recipe kept changing, and then it dawned on me, "Wait a minute, here I am, KISS guitar hero, and I don't even have one instrumental song on this record? This is weird." Then I had one week and wrote something, and Jeremy, being extremely picky and impossible at times, loved it. Which meant that I was onto something here. And I was like, "So, you are not going to tear that apart?" And he was like, "No, I think it's great, go ahead."
And then I knew I had a window of opportunity to book some studio time when I met Kenny Aronoff at Fantasy Camp that summer, and he was like, "I'm not that expensive, hire me." And Kenny is like at the top of the drum heap, so I was like, "OK, I'll take you up on that."
And then Kenny was mentioning the Stakehouse Studio which is in North Hollywood here in Los Angeles, and I tried to reach out to the people at Stakehouse, but couldn't get through to anybody. Nobody was returning the calls or e-mails, and reached out to Lukather because I knew that Steve used to be in some way, an owner on investor, and had some relationship to the Stakehouse. Steve, being a wonderful gentleman that he is, besides, being of course a brilliant guitarist who intimidates the hell out of me, responded to me right away, and said, "You have to contact this girl, here is how you get booked. I'm not involved in the studio anymore, but here you go."
So I told Jeremy, "OK, we are all booked at the Stakehouse, Steve gave me the number," And he says, "Is this a Lukather job? You know where I'm going with this, Bruce. Lukather should play on the song with you," To which, of course, I was kicking and screaming and yelling at Jeremy, "A-ah, he intimidates me, he's such a monster!" - "Bruce, it's gonna be great, you gotta try this, you gotta try this!" So you see, everything was very organic. And always totally neurotic, but in the end it all came out great.
AO: What is the secret to making instrumental music so accessible and so memorable, as on "Between the Lines"? I heard it once and I can't get it out of my head.
BK: Oh, thank you!
AO: How do you do that?
BK: Well, look, any time you're gonna compliment a musician on something he's created, the musician should wisely say, "It just came through me, it came from above, it came out, it just worked." I don't know. You can get a right idea for the song, but then how are you going to dress it up? That makes it even more attractive. You can have a beautiful girl but when you put the right accessories on them, they are over the top. So having Lukather play so well and having the communication of the two guitars…
I think I love the shredding, if I can say that. I don't want to say that Lukather is a shredder, he really isn't, he's just incredibly adept, his skill on the guitar is really extreme - the speed that he can play with and his emotion through that. A lot of guys can play very fast but not have that emotion. But I kind of left more of that to him, even though I'm not saying I did not play some speedy things on that track, but I think that communication and the different styles was the icing on the cake. That really made such a delicious dish there, I guess.
AO: How does your songwriting process work? Do you have to isolate yourself from the outside world or do these things come to you as you go about your daily business?
BK: I know there are people who like to say, "OK, I'm going to write from 12 to 6 today." And they can sit there and just wind up tuning their guitar for six hours, who knows, or they could write six great songs. You can't force the creative process. But hopefully when you surround yourself with the right people…
The leader of Lordi, Tomi, the band from Finland, is a big KISS fan, and I met him a few years back, and it went really well, I played him a couple of BK3 tracks, and he was freaking out, and I said, "You need to write with Jeremy and I." So he took me up on that a few months ago and his publisher sent him out to write a couple of things, and here we are. He is not someone I know really well, and he was in my home and we were sitting around with the guitars to see what happens.
Fortunately, first you break the ice, get comfortable with each other, and if you are talented, usually the creative juices start to flow. I'm really excited… We only had time to write and demo two things during that short week that he was here in LA, and I'm only using that as an example because the material that was written with Jeremy was a bit longer ago and I can't remember what it was like to sit down and do it. But you just do it.
I sometimes write a song just watching TV and lying in bed. And all of a sudden riffs are coming out. I don't usually start with lyrics, but everybody has their own process the same way that the creative elements of songwriting are not as obvious to people… I just saw that movie It Might Get Loud and they questioned Edge and Jimmy Page. Sometimes he would just start with some riff and then Bonham was helping him straightening it out, and those became some of the biggest songs of that decade.
You just don't know where that spark comes from, but recognising that you have something is, I think, as important as creating it. It used to frustrate me with some writers where I'd go, "I know this is good, but they are not responding, urgh, I want to strangle them." But in the end if your instincts are fine-tuned well enough, you know how to take the germ of an idea and turn it into something that you can't get out of your head, like you just said.
AO: Does the process for you start within-you hear something inside your head and then you get it out, you play it on the guitar-or are you sometimes led by your instrument?
BK: Well, yeah. The fingers just start moving, it's really weird. But then, forgetting anything on the guitar, there has to be melody, right? So there's the melody which comes from your head and then you put it into notes, or you hear a phrase. Like I remember Jeremy screaming out, "You're such a dirty girl!" on the phone. That's called "Dirty Girl" on my record, which actually had a different title before, but we then realised it's a stronger… the pre-chorus was better titled for the song than the end of the chorus.
He had that, whatever came out of his mouth, and then I'm writing a song kind of related to my affection for someone like Paris Hilton, like my fantasy of trying to show them, that oh, she just dated me, I'll give you happiness and you wouldn't need more fame, or more crazy nights at the night club, or whatever it is. "I'm your savior". It's funny how just one little spark of what he says is taken into the direction that I'm inspired to. It's very hard to get to find out what it is that makes creative people make something great happen.
On the plane ride home from Australia there was a show about a scientist who is a doctor and a neurologist, and who wanted to study the brainwaves of musicians because the guy was also a good musician. So it fascinated him. He wrote some books and the next thing you know who is he speaking in a CAT scan machine to scan? None other than Sting. Because Sting was fascinated with it too. And what I learnt from it… because I read a book too on the relationship between the mind and music I know It's very complex, there are no clear answers. There are certainly parts of the brain that get stimulated when you are being creative, but they don't understand it, it's not a very easily explained science as to how creative people create. The more Sting found out from what the guy discovered, the more uncomfortable he got. He said, "I don't think I want to know the process." Because he knows what a gift it is when it happens.
AO: Sting is known for getting uncomfortable very easily during interviews.
BK: He-he! He was great in this documentary though, I have to admit. But I know what you are saying. He has one of the most famous quotes about doing work on a record and I've quoted him before, "that you never finish an album, you abandon it." And Jeremy and I did abandon it, at one point we said, "OK, we have to stop, this is crazy. We can't fine-tune it anymore, it's tuned enough."
AO: Let me ask you this: do you think that being a rock guitarist has changed in any big way since the time when you were starting out? Not in terms of technology, not in terms of distribution, but in terms of craft, in terms of playing your instrument? Do you think there are more expectations these days or probably less?
BK: I think that the whole guitar hero thing kind of lost a bit, but I think the best thing to do-and it always helped me-is the idea that not only can I compete and be a competent talented guitarist, it's the fact that I can play bass, I can write songs, I can produce, I can help make a guitar sound good, and know a little bit about engineering. In other words, the more that you surround yourself with useful tools that are related to music… And the other thing too is that I get the whole business thing because there are many talented people that wind up sitting in their bedroom being brilliant, and they can't get out of the house and apply it, because there is another world of "music business" and that's "business". And if you don't know how to play the game and know what's realistic and what works… I've adapted myself very well.
I don't think any of that has changed because if you think of any of my heroes-like Hendrix didn't live long enough to show us what he would have done, but let's take Eric Clapton who in Cream was so influential to me and people like Eddie van Halen. Eric transforming, getting out of heroin and the next thing you know he is a solo artist and he's flourished and he's done so many brilliant things, and he has one of the biggest hits of his life with an acoustic guitar ballad written about his son who's died. A good musician will adapt and will fit into many situations. There are people like Pete Townshend who are still a viable live act and I bet the next record that he writes, although he hasn't put out a lot of stuff lately, I bet it would be really enjoyable. It hasn't changed that much, but the more versatile you are, probably the more success you'll have.
AO: What are you making of all the changes taking place in the music industry right now-the way the fans are recruited, the way stuff is distributed, things like MySpace and YouTube?
BK: Well, the internet has obviously changed rules and labels the way they were, which was pretty weirdly… There is one side of the coin-they were kind of corrupt and out of control, and then the other side of the coin, like Gene would say, "How often do you go to a bank and they give you half a million dollars and then when you lose all the money on it, you don't owe them anything?"
You know, there was an unsecured loan thing about big record companies. But that half a million might have been lost on your band X, and band Y just made them five million dollars. See what I mean? So it somehow worked, although it was crazy.
And then you get the press. I just read Mick Wall from Classic Rock a few months ago writing that (by the way, Classic Rock is my favourite magazine, they are doing a big thing in February on BK3) but the point is, back then to get any press it would be like, "OK, come on over, I'm taking you out to dinner, I've got hookers for you," Whatever it is. And now it's like an e-mail, you know what I mean? [Laughs]
The internet has certainly changed a lot of things. I don't know if the dust has settled yet. The most disturbing part for me, of course, and here's the downside, is that especially younger generation… Fortunately KISS fans, I think, like to hold the CD still, which is why I have spared no on expense on packaging of BK3-I used the best art directors in LA and I hired one of the best rock photographers in the world, Neil Zlozower, and I want my packaging to be amazing because I want the fans to hold something that doesn't look Mikey Mouse. I want it to be totally professional, and I accomplished that. But some people think music's free, and go, "Let me download it off this rogue site or let me rip a CD, and I don't need to buy it. Why should I pay for it?"
That's the bad side. CD sales have gone down horribly and they keep going down. Now, digital sales have gone up, fortunately, and people do see the value. Although I want someone to have all eleven of my tracks. If they want to only buy the Gene song and the Nick song, I'm not gonna be flipped out or upset, but they'll miss out on this wonderful instrumental that you like, they'll miss out on other tunes. That's the negative side-the way they are happy with mp3s. Let me tell you-my record sounds better on a CD when the file is a hundred times bigger than the mp3 that somebody sends you through the internet.
And the upside is all this immediacy where you can share so much with so many people around the world. There is this world community now. I can share photos of my trip to Australia up on my website, Facebook and MySpace, and thank all my fans. This is the upside of the internet. And there are already videos of my gigs in Australia on YouTube up there. So it's kind of crazy but you have to adapt yourself to it, as I said before. Adapting is important.
AO: I have one last question.
BK: OK, go for it!
AO: It's a bit goofy, but I hope you don't mind. Do you ever play for yourself? Not for practice, not for anybody else, but purely for your own enjoyment?
BK: Well, I do feel that when I sit in front of the TV and I'm just noodling on the guitar, that is for myself and nothing else. Now, it is a lot of fun to show off. If a girl is over and I'm trying to win some brownie points, they love to see me play guitar. I've experienced that my whole life and I haven't been married now for like 13-14 years… Has it been that long?.. I guess '95… Yeah, it has been that long. But I'm playing for myself at that point.
And you know when else I play for myself? I really enjoy playing for myself when I go to a music store looking for instruments. Because I have a nice collection--it's modest by some means but it's over a hundred guitars-and acquiring instruments, or swapping, and buying and selling, whatever I'm playing any of them, it's purely for myself, too. My connection with what it is to play is kind of like of someone who has over two hundred cars and he enjoys driving each one of them for a different reason, and I feel that way when I play my guitars from my collection. So I do play for myself, but the rewards are even greater when you impress some hot girl. [Laughs]
BK3 is out in the UK on January 29th and in North America on February 2nd.


