Anthony Morgan of Metal Forces recently conducted an interview with L.A. GUNS vocalist Phil Lewis. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.
On reuniting with guitarist Tracii Guns:
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“It was around Christmas time of 2013. A charity event takes place in Las Vegas every year called Toys For Tots, and it’s to raise money for underprivileged kids. It’s toys for Christmas — you get in for free if you bring an unopened toy. You can donate. All of the money goes to this charity, and Tracii [Guns, L.A. GUNS guitarist] signed up to do it — for nothing, of course. The event organizer gave me a call, and said ‘Look, Tracii‘s doing this. Would you be interested in getting up and doing a few songs?’ Just the nature of the event seemed like a nice thing, a good thing to do. We got together, and we didn’t rehearse. We didn’t even soundcheck — I just showed up an hour or so before. I played; it was just four songs, and we just got on great. We got on like a house on fire. We hadn’t seen each other at all in over a decade, not even by accident. We hadn’t run into each other in a club, or a music store, or anywhere. It was very nice, great, just talking with him briefly. When we played, I got the vibe, of course. There’s that magic that we have when we play together, and that was the beginning of [the new L.A. GUNS album] ‘The Missing Peace’.”
On two versions of L.A. GUNS existing for a number of years:
“It was a terrible time for the band. It’s definitely our lowest point. As many as 47 — and it might be up to 50 now… I don’t know — people out there lay claim to having been a member of L.A. GUNS, and if that’s not SPINAL TAP, then I don’t know what is. None of that matters, though. Me and him are back together back working, and all of that other stuff is history.”
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On the musical style of new L.A. GUNS album, “The Missing Peace”:
“When we started recording, we didn’t wanna make a nostalgic record, but a lot of people have said that it sounds like it could’ve been released after ‘Cocked & Loaded’ [1989]. It’s just something I’ve heard from fans and from journalists, and alike. It does have that vibe; even though we didn’t set out to do something like ‘Cocked & Loaded’, it just has that vibe. I don’t know if it sounds like it that. Songs like ‘Fever’ and ‘Speed’ do sound like they could have been on ‘Cocked & Loaded’, but musical pieces like ‘Gave It All Away’ and ‘The Missing Peace’ are musically way beyond anything we would’ve done back then, so it’s like we’ve evolved. I mean, ‘Speed’ and ‘Fever’ could be on ‘Cocked & Loaded’, but ‘The Missing Peace’ and ‘Gave It All Away’? There’s no way, so it’s quite a wide spectrum on this one. Wider than perhaps we’ve ever done in the past. We’ve gotten better, and with better musicians. We’re better people. It’s like a fine wine, and it really shows on this record.”
Via Blabbermouth.com